^MIMMM 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf ..MyilU 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




Legislation & Petitions . 
-* PRICE 25CENTS,}>^ 

Romans Temperance Publication Association, 

CHICAGO i- 



The Temperance Movement, 

OR THE 

CONFLICT BETWEEN MAN AND ALCOHOL. 
BY HENRY WILLIAM BLAIR, 

United States Senator from New Hampshire. 

Beautifully and strikingly illustrated with the portraits of over fifty leaders in the 
various fields of temperance work, with colored diagrams prepared by eminent physi- 
cians, and numerous comparative diagrams and tables, and a map locating the nearly 
ten thousand saloons of New York City. 

ITS SCOPE. 

The whole range of Temperance Discussion, Effort and History. 

THE VERDICT. 

It is the verdict of the public everywhere — attested by the opinions of the leading 
minds on one hand, and b}- the sale accorded the work on the other — -that this book of 
Senator Blair's is the great standard work on the subject, and will be accepted as such 
from this time. It is certain that so extensive and comprehensive a work has never 
before been attempted. It is also everywhere agreed that the wide circulation of this 
great book will add a mighty force to the temperance agitation . 

"There will be no end of its usefulness. I will wear it out as a book of reference. 
This work will live to do good after we are all resting beyond the recurrence of fatigue." 
— T. De Wilt Talmage. 

"The best temperance encyclopedia we have had. Will be to the Grand Army of the 
Temperance Reform what General Grant has been to the Grand Army of the Republic. 
This book will make an epoch in temperance literature."— Frances E. IVillard. 

" The most comprehensive book of the kind yet published. The portraits that illus- 
trate the volume are remarkably good." — Mary A. Livermore. 

"A most opportune book to post prohibition workers, and convince the unconverted 
reader. Its treatment of the National phase of the liquor problem is not only unequaled, 
but will be especially invaluable during the campaign for National Constitutional Pro- 
hibition."— Ada M. Bittenbender . 

" He speaks as a public man, from the realm of the statesman and not the reformer. 
Therefore his words should have weight and command attention."— Mary T. Lathrap. 

" The book is worthy the man and worthy the theme."—/. Ellen Foster. 

" I feel there is no higher work to do for temperance than to help circulate this mas- 
terly work."— Angie F. Xenman. 

" The book is concise, powerful, deeply impressive, and suggestive." — Mrs. President 
James K. Polk. 

" I most heartily commend it. The outlook is wide, the statistics reliable, and the 
arguments undisputable. ''—Clara C. Hoffman. 

" Senator Blair seems to have absorbed all that is known concerning all phases of the 
subject of temperance, and given it out to the public in this masterly book." — Mary L. 
Dickinson. 

" The best single volume that America has produced on the temperance movement I 
now deliberately hold up before this Boston audience. It is the famous work just issued 
by Senator Blair, of New Hampshire, and already in wide and effective circulation. In 
his high place in Congress, Senator Blair champions the most advanced and radical ideas 
of the temperance reform, and so makes the whole nation and the next century his debt- 
ors."— Jo sep h Cook. 



"To have written such a book is more than any political honors which could be be- 
stowed upon its author. "—John G. Whittier. 

" I do not know of any work so thorough, and at the same time so lucid and concise 
on the subject of drunkenness as yours." — Dr. William A. Hammond. 

"It is the best compendium I have seen of the history, development, and progress of the 
Temperance Reform in the world, and of the arguments historical, statistical, and legal, 
to sustain the cause of organic prohibition."— Col. Switzler, Chief U. S. Bureau Statistics. 

" I hope the W. C. T. U. will adopt energetic measures for the national circulation of 
this important work."—- Bishop John P. Newman. 

" Senator Blair's book gathers up nearly all that is worth preserving in previous dis- 
cussions of the liquor problem, and furnishes us a temperance cyclopedia in facts, but in 
the better form of an eloquent cumulative argument for that highest watchword of the 
Temperance reform. ' A National Evil Demands a National Remedy.' "—Rev. Dr. Wilbur 
F. Crafts. 

" There is no gush in that book, no wild imagination from excited ministers. The 
bold facts are there as desolate as the Sahara Desert."— Rev. G. W. Gallagher. 

"This book, so eagerly looked for, is before us. In it we find condensed and combined 
a great amount of valuable information concerning alcohol, its effects upon the body, 
apon wealth, and the welfare of the people, various remedies employed, their partial or 
entire failure, which proves the necessity of National Prohibition."— The Union Signal. 

" This is a very elaborate work upon one of the most important questions of practical 
politics. . . . It is refreshing to greet such a work by a man in active and successful 
public life. Mr. Blair is an honor to New Hampshire, and will be classed by future ages 
among the benefactors of his race." — The Woman's Journal. 

" It is an able, impressive, and instructive work."— The Congregationalism 

"This remarkable book has been discriminatingly designated by the press as-an ency- 
clopedia. It is eminently a book for the family, of equal interest to the young and the 
old. His style is in the best sense popular . . . sure to secure and retain the attention 
of the general reader."— Universalist Quarterly. 

A GREAT BOOK FOR AGENTS. 

Senator Blair's book sells wherever it is shown. Even the man who drinks too much 
and knows it, welcomes this volume and reads its pages with absorbing interest. 

THE STUDENT, 

THE EDUCATOR, 

THE LABORING MAN, 

THE PROFESSIONAL MAN, 

ALL WHO LOVE HOME AND NATIVE LAN D will be interested in this story of 
the conflict between Man and Alcohol. 

We Want Agents. 

Will give liberal terms. The book can be sold everywhere— by everybody, Those who 
are temperance workers and those who are not speeially so, can dispose of this book 
readily. If you want to put money into the cause, sell* this book and give the profits to 
the W. C. T. U. of your place. Thousands of Miss Willard's book, "Glimpses of Fifty 
Years," have been sold in this way. 

For terms, territory, and full particulars, address 

THE PUBLISHERS, OR GENERAL AGENTS, 



The Woman's Temp. Pub. Ass'n, 
161 La Salle Street, 

Chicago. 



H. J. Smith & Co., 
Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, 
Kansas City, Mo., Oakland, Cal. 



THE 



National Prohibitory Amendment 



GUIDE. 



ADA mYbITTENBENDER, 

■ 

Xational W. C. T. U. Superintendent of Legislation and Petitions. 



"This evil (the liquor traffic) runs with the blood 
throughout the whole system of national life, and nothing 
but National Constitutional treatment will cure it." — U. S. 
Senate Report, favoring submission of the Prohibitory Amendment. 




CHICAGO : 

Woman's Temperance Publication Association, 

161 La Salle Street. 

1889. 



-IB<b 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, by 

ADA M. BITTENBENDER, 
In the Onice of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



CONTENTS. 

Introduction by Frances E. Willard. 
Preface by the Author. 



PART I. 

HISTORY, ARGUMENTS, INDORSEMENTS. 

Page 

Brief account of the Amendment — original and present form I 

National Temperance Society amendment . . . . . 3 

Memorials and petitions 3 

Speeches . 5 

Amendment— present form * • " 4 

Reports — present form: 

Adverse report 5 

Views of the minority -. 6 

Favorable report 7 

Report — original form 10 

Amendment — original form . . . . ^ 12 

The first vote 13 

National Temperance Society address 14 

National W. C. T U. argument 19 

Views of Senatoi Blair 31 

Views of other leading Prohibitionists: 

Frances E. Willard 36 

Samuel Dickie 36 

Gen. Clinton B. Fisk . . . 36 

W. Jennings Demorest 37 

T. De Witt Talmage, D. D 37 

Daniel Dorchester, D. D 38 

Indorsements of organizations and newspapers: 

Temperance societies 38 

Religious bodies 39 

Political parties 41 

Religious press 41 

Secular press 45 

The famous "Memorial of the American home for protection from the 

American saloon" 64 

Miss Willard's address 65 

National Prohibition versus the High License and Local Option policy 66 

Strength of Constitutional Prohibition sentiment 66 

Origin of State Constitutional prohibition 68 



Contents. vi 
PART II. 

PLAN OF CANVASS FOR NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 

. . Page 

National Prohibitory Amendment committees 71 

Work of National Prohibitory Amendment committees: 

I. Before proposal of the Amendment ." . . . 72 

II. After proposal of the Amendment . . 72 

How to organize National Prohibitory Amendment committees: 

For local work 72 

For Congressional work 74 

For State Legislative work 74 

I. — Before Proposal of the Amendment. 

general directions to N. P. A. committees for local work 75 

Registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists 78 

Congressional petition work: 

Forms of Popular and Representative petitions 80 

How to use the petitions 82 

Form of Indorsement on Popular Petitions ..... . , . 84 

Appearance of properly indors^ Popular petition 85 

Public discussions 86 

Resume of the canvass 86 

How to record public discussions 89 

Press work' • . 89 

How to record press work 91 

Distribution of literature 91 

How to record the distribution of literature ,..-.. 92 

Reporting local work to Prohibition organizations , 92 

Monthly reports and form of 93 

Semi-annual reports and forms of 94 

Summary of voters 98 

Congressional canvassing — preparation, performance, annual reports . 98 

II. — After Proposal of the Amendment,, 

General directions to N. P. A. committees for State legislative work ... 99 

Form of registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists 99 

State Legislative petition work: 

Forms of Popular and Representative petitions 100 

How to use petitions— form of indorsement on Popular petitions . 101 

Reporting local work to Prohibition organizations 102 

State Legislative canvassing— preparation, performance, reports . . . .103 
Receipts and Expenditures of committees— How to record 104 



INTRODUCTION. 

As there . is but one keystone to an arch, so there is but one to 
the Prohibition movement. In the nature of the case, this must be so, and 
every temperance expert knows that Prohibition by an amendment to the 
National Constitution is that keystone to the arch, that clincher of the 
argument, that final outcome of the mightiest reform movement under the 
sun. 

The argument may be reviewed more vividly by illustration : Uncle 
Sam owns a farm; it is divided into forty- two fields (States), leased by his 
nephews, while he has seven new fields (Territories), besides the home 
garden (District of Columbia), under his care. The use of bitters 
by the hands is the great curse that afflicts Uncle Sam's farm. 
It makes the hired men lazy, unhealthy, and many of them crimi- 
nal. Six of his nephews have declared the^y would not allow this 
wretched drink to be either made or sold in their fields, have held a meet- 
ing of all their tenants, and agreed to keep out the nuisance or die in the 
attempt. They have gone about this with so much pluck and determina- 
tion that they would actually have kept their fields comparatively free, but 
for one thing, viz. : Uncle Sam has a afferent theory about controlling this 
dangerous drink. He says : " It is a great evil, but I will make it a ' great 
beneficence.' In the first place, we shall always have these bitters made 
and sold — you may set that down for a fixed fact. Farmer John Bull sends 
it across the waters, and I shall let it in, but not till he has paid a heavy tax. 
That will go a good ways toward supporting me, and make your rent less. 
Then, as they will make this stuff anyhow, I will just let it go on in my 
seven new fields and in my garden spot, and you must not mind if I have 
it carted through your fields on the way to my own ; besides, I'll let 'em 
make it under my own eye, in places set apart for that purpose, right in the 
fields next yours, where they haven't this fanatical rule that you have 
about not letting it be made or sold. Then, in my own garden patch I'll 
*make special arrangements not to have it sold unless each man that keeps 
it pays so much, right direct to me. If they'll do that, I'll let it come 
straight into my own house with the big dome." 

But Uncle Sam's nephews are not so stupid as the old gentleman imag- 
ines. They reply : " Now see here ! so long as you give a writing to the 
men that make these bitters, telling them they may, and taking ninety cents 
for yourself on every gallon they manufacture, so long will you want this 
drink made and sold. Don't you see that you are the great bitters-maker 
yourself? You standby, and weigh and measure, and make sure that you 
know just how much the bitters man manufactures, and then you shut it up 
tight and put a watch dog at the door so that nobody can go in or out 

rvii) 



viii In troduction. 

without your knowing it. Then, when the man sells a gallon, you take 
four-fifths of the profits. If he sells to another man that works the stuff 
into some other kind of drink, you make the last man pay you $200 for 
this privilege , if he sells at wholesale you charge him $150 ; if he sells it 
out to our hands in small quantities, $25. Then, by doing this you make 
it next to impossible for us to keep the stuff out of our fields. Bitters are so 
handy to smuggle across the line that we can never keep the abomination 
out altogether, do what we will. When you go to cart them through our 
fields it is so easy to let a keg drop off here and there ! ' ' 

"Besides,*' continue these go-ahead, anti-bitters men, "as your rules 
now stand, you come into our fields, and if you find a man convicted of sell- 
ing, you make him pay you so much, so that he gets a sort of permit from 
you that makes it harder for us to convict him of his bad behavior. I tell you, 
Uncle Sam, we don't propose to stand this thing much longer, but to send a 
lot of our men to your garden patch and make you do us justice. We are 
on the war path for that very thing. We've picked out our leaders and 
counted up our men, and will be along quicker than you've any notion of t 
to turn the bitters out of your big house and clear it up generally. 

"Then we'll proceed to fix up those seven fields so they'll never have a 
bitters factory or a bitters shop. We'll notify Farmer John across the way 
that he's got to shut up shop, as far as coming over to your farm with his 
product is concerned : and then we*ll proceed to draw up a writing and 
get all your forty-two nephews to sign it, promising never to allow this bit- 
ters business to go on anywhere inside the boundaries of the old farm, 
because if it's made at all some of the farm hands are sure to get hold of it, 
and then away go comfort and peace." 

It is a happy thing for us that at the providential time, a woman has 
been raised up to plan for us this long, laborious and last campaign ; a 
woman who brings to her great task the discipline of mind that comes of a 
thorough legal education, Mrs. Bittenbender being an attorney of seven 
years' standing and the third woman admitted to practice in the Supreme 
Court of the United States. But, best of all, we have in the chosen legal 
adviser of the National W. C. T. U., one who hears and heeds the inward 
voice with its "Thus saith the Lord," and, "This is the way, walk ye in it."» 

Let us rally to the call, mobilize the army, nationalize the moveme.it, 
and march steadily onward with the white banner of National Constitu- 
tional Prohibition, to the music of our motto, "For God and Home and 
Native Land." 




October, 1889. (/y^a^ 



PREFACE. 

The necessity of nationalizing the temperance reform is now generally 
recognized by the soldiers on dnty in the Prohibition army. 

The main lesson taught by State Amendment defeats is this necessity. 

" On to Washington " is the rallying cry. 

The object of this manual is to aid in obtaining a National Prohibitory 
Amendment which shall outlaw forever the traffic in alcoholic beverages. 

As construed, the Constitution of the United States is the bulwark of 
the nefarious traffic. 

Even if the Constitution should be construed so as to permit of unlim- 
ited prohibitory enactments by individual States, either in amending then- 
constitutions or by statutory provisions, still there would remain the neces- 
sity of National legislation which should affect the whole country, includ- 
ing the Territories and those States which are not inclined to prohibit the 
traffic. And nothing but National legislation could possibly include in the 
prohibition the imported article, without which the prohibition of the 
domestic article throughout the country would be of little avail. 

Because of the construction given the Constitution, this National legis- 
lation must be of a constitutional character ; but should it be interpreted 
differently, still the inhibition ought to be expressed in the organic law 
to insure permanent protection. 

Election of men to Congress favoring proposal of the Amendment, and 
to State legislatures favoring its ratification, is not herein considered. The 
skirmishes with ballots may compel their election. If they do not, a "battle 
of ballots" will. The forces are being massed and drilled for the latter. 
The canvass in hand deals with the elected. 

This canvass is mainly to register National Constitutional Prohibition- 
ists and to proclaim their number from time to time, as the work progresses, 
to the law-makers and people in general. At present there is no way of 
determining their numerical strength. In fact no enrollment of the army 
in its entirety has ever been attempted. Its soldiers of the Prohibition 
party are counted through the ballot-box ; but those of the Prohibition 
army who still remain in the old political parties there is no way to count. 

When the footings of this register indicate that one-half of the adult 
people of the United States have enlisted in the war for the extermination 
of the traffic in alcoholic beverages, and desire that the Constitution shall 



x Preface. 

express the National will on the subject, the amendment will be proposed 
and ratified. But this is not likely to take place until such showing is 
made. 

The first part of the manual contains a brief account of National 
Prohibitory Amendments and Congressional action in relation thereto ; 
arguments, indorsements of organizations and newspapers, etc. The 
second part consists of the plan of canvass for National Constitutional 
Prohibition. 

The canvass is to be carried on by three classes of National Prohibitory 
Amendment Committees, composed of representatives of the various Pro- 
hibition organizations of the United States, viz.: 

i. National Prohibitory Amendment Committees for local work. 

2. National Prohibitory Amendment Committee for Congressional 
work. 

3. National Prohibitory Amendment Committees for State legislative 
work. 

The representatives on the two last named committees are to consist of 
the general officers of the National or State Prohibition societies, the general 
officers of the National or State Executive Committee of the Prohibition 
party, and the National or State W. C. T. U. Superintendent of Legislation 
and Petitions. 

The local canvassing is to be carried on in canvassing districts, each 
consisting of one school district, except in large cities where the school 
district may be divided into several canvassing districts. 

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union having made this Amend- 
ment a special line of work, having county and district as well as local and 
State organizations through which to carry it on, and having a suitable 
department — that of Legislation and Petitions — ready to do its bidding, the 
initiatory steps for the organization of these committees and the responsi- 
bility for executing a part of the system of official reporting, are committed 
to its care. 

The National Prohibitory Amendment obtained, the Prohibition army 
will have the enforcing statutes and their execution to labor for. But these 
parts of the work will be comparatively easy, public sentiment being 
educated and ready to give sanction. 

The Author. 

Lincoln, Nebraska, October 1, 1889. 



The National Prohibitory Amendment Guide ; 



PART I. 

BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE AMENDMENT— ORIGINAL 
AND PRESENT FORM. 

A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States in relation to alcoholic beverages, was introduced in the 
Forty-fourth Congress, on December 12, 1876, by Hon. Henry W. Blair, 
from New Hampshire, then a member of the House of Representatives. 
This was the first measure of the kind ever presented in our National Leg- 
islature and preceded by several years any effective proposal of a prohibitory 
amendment to the Constitution of a State. 

In response to the request for a brief account of the National Prohib- 
itory Amendment, both in its original and in its present form, Senator 
Blair, in a letter dated April 27, 1889, says : 

"I was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress on the second Tuesday 
of March, 1875. The Congressional District in which I resided, had been 
Democratic during the Forty-second and Forty -third Congresses, and the 
struggle for supremacy in 1875 was very close and intense. There had 
been a small temperance party, the Third party, commonly so-called, for 
some years in New Hampshire. Many young clergymen belonged to it, or 
sympathized with it, who had been Republicans, and still sympathized gen- 
erally with that party. I had always been known as a Prohibitionist ; had 
been disabled for several years from wounds received and disease contracted 
in the army ; and these men just quietly did all they could to secure my 
election. They did this without conditions or hesitation, and with great 
earnestness. I was elected by a plurality of 164 votes. I had in my own 
mind felt that there was no effective way of dealing with the liquor crime 
but by national prohibition, ever since I comprehended much of it and of 
the relations between the government of the Nation and of the States. 
Feeling under obligation to do something to manifest my appreciation of 
the honorable and ungrudging manner in which I had been supported by 



2 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

those men of the Third party whom I have mentioned, I determined to do 
what no one else had done, and what it then seemed hopeless, and almost 
foolish to attempt. 

" Reflecting much from time to time, upon the form of the necessary 
amendment to the National Constitution, and the condition of public senti- 
ment, prejudice and opinion, and the power of the trafhc which was to be 
encountered, I was in great perplexity, until finally, one glorious morning, 
as I was riding over Bridge water Heights, which separate the villages of 
Plymouth and Bristol, at a point on the highway from which there is one 
of the most beautiful and sublime views of the White Mountain ranges, 
the Pemigewassett valley and other combinations of lake, valley and 
mountain, in both rugged and cultivated beauty, such as I know not of 
outside my native State, the mass of confused and unformed ideas which 
had been in my mind reduced themselves to definite proportions, substan- 
tially as I subsequently introduced and advocated them in the proposed 
amendment ; in this form I introduced it in every succeeding Con- 
gress and pressed it upon public attention until I introduced that which 
was pending in the Fiftieth Congress, which has the more general sanction 
of temperance societies. 

"The form in which it was last introduced is one which was agreed upon 
in personal conference between Mr. Powell, Mr. Stearns and myself, upon 
two occasions, and by correspondence with Miss Willard, Mr. Finch, and 
I believe with other leading Prohibitionists. 

" For several years the National Temperance Society has advocated and 
procured to be introduced a proposed amendment, prohibiting the manu- 
facture and sale of all forms of intoxicating liquors as beverages. You 
know the action of the W. C. T. U. and of various societies, churches, 
etc., etc. 

"In the hope of securing harmony of action I have yielded my own 
judgment of the most efficient plan of making the attack with a view to 
early success, and of facilitating that gradual process which must precede 
complete victory. I had thought that the result would be earlier achieved 
in the original form of the amendment, which proposed to become opera- 
tive absolutely by National law against the distilled drinks, from and after 
the year 1900, and, at once, for all time, give to the States unfettered con- 
trol to prohibit, not to license nor indulge, the traffic in both distilled and 
fermented liquors — each State being in effect clothed at once with all the 
powers of a separate and independent nation, to control the manufacture, 
sale, importation, exportation and transportation throughout its own jur- 
isdiction. 

' ' I wish to say this much in regard to the original form of the Amend- 
ment. 

" The temperance organizations of the country which believe in Prohi- 
bition, are united in the earnest support of the form in which it is now 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 3 

presented. And it is to be hoped that all who desire the destruction of the 
traffic will concentrate every energy in the promotion of the great reform — 
which must be nationalized or fail." * 



NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY AMENDMENT. 

In the Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Con- 
gresses, the Hon. Preston B. Plumb, from Kansas, introduced a joint reso- 
lution for a Prohibitory Amendment which included fermented liquors. 
It was prepared by Aaron M. Powell, for the National Temperance Society, 
and is essentially the Kansas amendment. Its introduction was caused 
because the National Temperance Society felt, that, as a total abstinence 
society, they could not support Senator Blair's Amendment in its original 
form on account of its discrimination concerning fermented liquors. 
All having agreed upon the joint resolution as introduced by Senator Blair 
in the Fiftieth Congress, the one formulated from the Kansas amendment 
was not again introduced. 

The Kansas form was also introduced, at Mr. Powell's request, in the 
House of Representatives of the Forty-sixth Congress, by Hon. L. W. Ballou, 
from Rhode Island. It was not always subsequently introduced in the 
House in the succeeding Congresses. 

No action was ever taken on it in either body beyond printing and 
reference to committees. 



MEMORIALS AND PETITIONS. 

The Records of Congress show that for several years prior to the first 
introduction of the Amendment, memorials and petitions began to be re- 
ceived by Congress praying for the submission of such an amendment. 
These, variously worded and numerously signed, were from individuals, 
churches, and the different temperance societies of the country — national, 
state and local. 

A petition presented in the Senate on February 15, 1875, was signed by 
over twelve hundred citizens of South Carolina, asking Congress for sub- 
mission of "an amendment to the Constitution to prohibit the manufact- 
ure, importation and sale of all intoxicating liquors, to take effect on the 
first day of January, 1876, or as soon thereafter as possible." 

Hon. Aaron A. Sargent, in presenting petitions for such an amend- 
ment, March 1, 1875, said : "I present a large number of petitions numer- 
ously signed by citizens of California, stating that crime, violence, immor- 
ality, poverty and domestic misery are all attributable to the use of 
intoxicating spirits, and that the amount of loss occasioned by them is 
greater than the amount of revenue derived from them, and they ask for 



■For wording of the original form, see page 10. 



4 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

an amendment to the Constitution of the United States which shall pro- 
hibit the manufacture, importation and sale of all intoxicating liquors, to 
take effect on the first of January, 1876, or as soon thereafter as possible. 
I will remark that I find that these petitions are largely signed by women. 
The only manner by which they can be heard in the National Councils is 
by petition. I trust the day will soon come when their influence may be 
felt more directly ; but, awaiting that time, I move that these petitions be 
referred to the Committee on Finance." 

The eighth National Temperance Convention, called by the National 
Temperance Society, held at Chicago in 1875, declared in a resolution unan- 
imously adopted, as follows : 

" Resolved, That the time has arrived more fully to consider the rela- 
tions of the National Government to, and its responsibility for, the alcoholic 
liquor traffic ; that we hereby ask the Forty-fourth Congress to prohibit the 
manufacture and sale of all alcoholic beverages in the District of Columbia 
and in the Territories of the United States ; and to prohibit their importa- 
tion from foreign countries ; to require total abstinence from all alcoholic 
beverages on the part of all officials in the civil, military and naval services ; 
and to initiate and adopt for ratification by the several States of the Union a 
constitutional amendment which shall make the traffic in alcoholic beverages 
illegal throughout our National domain." 

This resolution was incorporated into a memorial, and used by other 
temperance societies, and by religious bodies, in petitioning Congress on the 
subject. 

The National Convention of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 
held at Washington, D. C, in 1881, 

" Resolved, That we attest our approval of Senator Blair in his noble 
standing for temperance in the halls of our National Congress, and pledge 
ourselves, as soon as possible, to roll into the Senate a petition of one mil- 
lion names for an amendment to the Constitution of the United States* pro- 
hibiting the manufacture and sale of all alcoholic liquors, fermented and 
distilled." 

The following extract from the Senate Report on the Amendment, made 
July 9, 1888, shows the amount of petitioning which had been accomplished 
at that time by the combined forces at work : 

"Judging from the petitions which have been presented to Congress 
during the last few years, many of which are representative of great bodies 
and of communities whose individual signatures have not been obtained, it 
can hardly be doubted that at least ten millions Of the American people are 
desirous of National legislation for the destruction of poisonous, that is to 
say, of alcoholic drinks." 

Since that report was made, during the winter of 1888-89, the Woman's 
Christian Temperance Unions collected and forwarded to Congress more 
than fifty thousand individual signatures. 

Besides, several memorials and petitions, officially signed, representing 
large associations, have been received by Congress. The most notable one 
was the memoral signed by the committee appointed by the National Coun- 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 5 

cil of the Congregational Churches of the United States, which represented 
4,277 churches, containing 436,379 members. These were received also 
during the winter of 18SS-89. 

The records of Congress do not show any memorials or petitions against 
the Amendment as having been received. 



SPEECHES. 

. Senator Blair's speeches, so far, are the only ones ever made in Con- 
gress by any one in favor of National Constitutional Prohibition. 

His first was made in the House of Representatives on December 27, 
1S76, which is printed and for sale by the National Temperance Society, 
No. 58 Reade Street, New York. 

His first speech on the Amendment in the United States Senate was 
made April 26, 1SS6. 

AMENDMENT.— PRESENT FORM. 

[First introduced in the Fiftieth Congress, December 12, 1887.] 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled [two-thirds of each House concur- 
ring therein), That the following amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States be, and hereby is, proposed to the States, to become valid 
when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States as 
provided in the Constitution : 

ARTICLE — . 

Section i. The manufacture, importation, exportation, transporta- 
tion and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage shall, and hereby is, for- 
ever prohibited in the United States and in every place subject to their 
jurisdiction. 

Sec. 2. Congress shall enforce this article by all needful legislation. 

ADVERSE REPORT. " 

BY THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY OE THE HOUSE OE REPRESENTA- 
TIVES. 

[First report on the Amendment in its present form— Submitted February 

7th, 1888.] 
The Committee on the Judiciary, having had under consideration the 
joint resolution (H. Res. 15), propo'sing an amendment to the Constitution 
of the United States prohibiting in the United States and in every place 
subject to their jurisdiction the manufacture, importation, exportation, 
transportation, and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage, believe the 
proposed amendment to be unwise and inexpedient, and report the same 
adversely, and recommend that it lie upon the table. 



6 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

VIEWS OF THE MINORITY. 

Hon. A. X. Parker, from New York, dissented from the adverse report 
made by the majority of the committee, and submitted the following minor- 
ity report : , 

The proposition under consideration was introduced by Mr. Dingley, of 
Maine, and provides as follows : 

That the following amendment to the Constitution of the United Slates 
be, and hereby is, proposed to the States, to become valid when ratified by 
the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, as provided in the 
Constitution : 

ARTICLE — . 

Section i. The manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation, 
and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage shall be, and hereby is, forever 
prohibited in the United States and in every place subject to their juris- 
diction. 

SEC. 2. Congress shall enforce this acticle by all needful legislation. 

The undersigned, dissenting from the report made by the majority of 
the committee, herein, respectfully submits : 

That the question of the sale of alcoholic liquors as a beverage, accord- 
ing to existing customs, has become recognized as one of national scope 
and importance. 

That it is a matter of common information that religious societies num- 
bering many millions in their membership urge the suppression of the 
liquor traffic ; and that extensive and powerful labor organizations are pro- 
claiming that the dram-shop is the foe of the workingman's family and that 
temperance is the very corner-stone of prosperity, and call for Congres- 
sional action upon the side of reform ; while the social, industrial, and re- 
form societies which exist in almost every community in the land, and unite 
the contributions and labors of multitudes of earnest and influential men 
and women, demand national action. 

If the people thus speaking are mistaken in their views they may be 
disregarded, but if they are right they should be heeded. 

It is not necessary to make argument as to whether they are right or 
wrong, as it is a matter of observation or experience with almost every one 
that alcoholic beverages are injurious to mankind. 

Therefore, it is respectfully submitted that Congress should adopt the 
resolution. By so doing, it will properly respond to the just requirements of 
millions of American citizens. 

It will also nationalize the temperance movement and attach it to the 
very foundations of our civil organization ; it will challenge the attention 
of the people from the most exalted platform from which they can be 
addressed, and will designate the States as the battle-fields for finally de- 
ciding this impending conflict. 

A. X. Parker. • 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 7 

FAVORABLE REPORT. 

By the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, Hon. Henry W. 
Blair, from New Hampshire, Chairman. 

[First favorable report on the Amendment in its present form. — Submit- 
ted July 9th, iSSS.] 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled {two-thirds of each House con- 
curring therein), That the following amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States be, and hereby is, proposed to the States, to become valid 
when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States as 
provided in the Constitution. 

ARTICLE—. 

Section I. The manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation, 
and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage shall be, and hereby is, for- 
ever prohibited in the United States and in every place subject to their 
jurisdiction. 

Sec. 2. Congress shall enforce this article by all needful legislation. 

In submitting this favorable report upon the aforesaid joint resolution 
it is proper to say that there are members of the committee who concur in 
the report recommending the submission of the proposed amendment to 
the States who do not, by such action, indicate their approval of the adop- 
tion of the amendment as a part of the Constitution nor that they would 
themselves advocate its ratification by the legislatures of the States ; but in 
deference to the immense mass of petitions for this amendment of the 
organic law, coming from the people in all parts of the country, and believ- 
ing that an opportunity should be given to them to be heard upon the 
merits of their cause in the forum of the States, where alone it can be 
heard and decided, the majority of the committee would deem a refusal to 
submit the proposed amendment to the States for consideration analogous 
to the denial of the right of a party to be heard in court upon a question of 
private right. The method provided in the Constitution for its own peace- 
ful amendment would be destroyed by failure to submit the proposition for 
amendment in cases of grave moment involving the approval and prayers 
of multitudes of the people, for where the remedy sought is admitted to be 
without the jurisdiction of the fundamental law, the petition is really ad- 
dressed to the only tribunal which can enlarge that jurisdiction, that is to 
say, to the States themselves. Should, then, Congress in such case refuse 
to submit the proposal to the States, such refusal would constitute a sub- 
stantial denial of the right of petition itself. 

The changes in the national Constitution made indispensable by the 
development of the nation can only be peacefully accomplished by a judi- 
cious and liberal exercise of the power of Congress to propose amendments 
to the States upon the petition of those who desire to be heard in the great 
court of the people exercising their sovereignity through the States, as in 
the formation of the Constitution. 



8 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

It is well known that but for the belief in the conventions of the States 
that the opportunity to amend the Constitution would be most liberally 
afforded by Congress in accordance with the forms provided in that instru- 
ment, the original ratification never would have been obtained. Some of 
the States ratified only because it was firmly believed that, whatever might 
be the opinions of Congress upon the modifications desired by those who 
considered the instrument proposed for ratification as fatally defective 
without them, the suggested amendments would be submitted to the subse- 
quent action of the States almost as a matter of course. 

While the committee w T ould by no means justify the submission of 
trifling or uncalled-for propositions for the consideration of the States, yet 
they firmly believe that the perpetuity and peace of the country under the 
forms of constitutional government demand that there be no captious or 
arbitrary denial of the right of petition for the amendment of the funda- 
mental law through the forms of Congressional submission to the tribunal 
of the people in the States. 

THE AGITATION FOR NATIONAL LEGISLATION 

for the extirpation of the traffic in alcoholic poison made and sold to be 
used as a beverage will never cease to disturb and finally destroy great 
political parties, until they submit the question of the enlargement of. 
national constitutional jurisdiction so as to include control of the subject. 

When this proposed amendment is submitted to the action of the Sta'tes 
the subject will pass in its important features from the national arena to 
that of the several States until the fate of the proposed amendment is 
decided. When decided, if adversely to the ratification, the subject will be 
eliminated from national politics, at least for many years. 

If, on the other hand, the proposed amendment should be ratified and 
become a part of the national law, the chief curse of the world would be 
summoned to the block of national justice, and die by the hand of the only 
power which can wield an axe big and sharp enough to cut off its hydra 
head. 

Then we should have peace. 

But the agitation for the destruction of the liquor traffic can not cease 
until the evils which it inflicts upon mankind are removed or the human 
race is destroyed. 

It is useless to cry peace, peace, when there is no peace. It is time to 
face the subject. Evasion has become almost impossible, and the effort 
requires an activity which is too exhaustive for long continuance. 

PETITIONS. 

Judging from the petitions which have been presented to Congress 
during the last few years, many of which are representative of great bodies 
and of communities whose individual signatures have not been obtained, 
it can hardly be doubted that at least ten millions of the American people 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 9 

are desirous of national legislation for the destruction of poisonous, that is 
to say, of alcoholic, drinks. 

These people represent a power of thought and a moral force far 
greater than their mere numbers. Whoever expects to withstand the 
shock of their charge will yet regret that its irresistible power was not 
seasonably realized. 

These petitions for the opportunity to amend the National Constitution 
must be heard and will be heard. Those who will oppose them in the 
States will yet demand that they shall be heard in the States upon the 
proposition of a prohibitory amendment of the National Constitution. 

To deny this is to subvert the republican form of government, and the 
honorable opponents of the measure will not always refuse to its friends 
that hearing in court which is the sacred right of every American, and 
especially in a matter of so great national concern. 

CLAIMS OF ADVOCATES. 

It is claimed by the advocates of this amendment that the liquor 
traffic is a unit of evil which submerges the whole nation, and that there 
can be no complete, and certainly no permanent elevation of any part 
above this "sea of trouble," which is not the result of a lifting force 
exerted continuously by the nation in its organic capacity everywhere 
throughout the whole country, co-operating with and supplementing, and, 
when necessary to accomplish the end, overruling and subordinating the 
action of the States. 

At the present time the police power in the States is fettered and 
thwarted in its efforts to suppress this evil within the limits of the States, 
respectively, by the national guaranties of protection to transportation, and 
the rights of manufacture and sale existing in all the States and localities 
which decline to impose the necessary restriction. 

This evil runs with the blood throughout the whole system of national 
life, and nothing but national constitutional treatment will cure it. 

It is not a local disease. To be sure there are local ulcerations, but 
they extend all over the body. It has become a confluent eruption which 
must be medicined from within as well as from without. It can not be 
cured by the external application of patches of plaster upon the States, 
whose combined surfaces, with that of the Territories, cover that of the 
entire national body. 

The police power in government, the power of the people to preserve 
order, health, and good morals, is said to be vested in the States. The 
liquor traffic is believed by the advocates of this resolution for the amend 
ment of the Constitution to be directly destructive to society, and conse- 
quently of all ends for which the police power exists. From the very 
nature of the liquor evil, and the fact that we are a nation and but one 
nation, this omnipresent national evil can not be controlled by the feeble 
efforts of States. From their juxtaposition they could hardly protect them- 



io National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

selves against each other, even if they were absolutely independent 
nations. But now the nation controls both interstate and foreign com- 
merce, protects the manufacture, wherever local law permits it to, and the 
distribution and sale to such extent everywhere that without national 
action the evil must be perpetual as far as its removal depends upon law. 

National constitutional legislation, therefore, becomes necessary to 
preserve the police power itself, which, under existing national laws and 
the relations between the States themselves, as well as between the general 
Government and the States, is nullified, and the health, morals and good 
order of society destroyed. 

Such are a few of the arguments by which the advocates of this 
measure press its consideration upon us. 

The proposal to amend the Constitution in this regard has been pend- 
ing in Congress since the second session of the Forty-fourth Congress. 

the; form op the proposition 
as now submitted has been modified so as to harmonize the conflicting 
views of its own friends, and to secure, as far as the committee is aware, the 
universal support of all who desire the national prohibition of the traffic 
in alcoholic poisons made to be used as beverages. 

The report of the committee of the last Congress in favor of a like 
amendment is herewith submitted as a part of this, together with the able 
and exhaustive address before the committee by A. M. Powell, Esq., who 
represented the National Temperance Society, and the lucid and compre- 
hensive argument of Mrs. Ada M. Bittenbender, the accomplished attorney 
of the Woman's National Christian Temperance Union, both of which are 
incorporated as a part of this report, and will render further discussion by 
the committee unnecessary. 

This form* of amendment was proposed and advocated by the chair- 
man of the committee in the House of Representatives of the Forty-fourth 
Congress, and in every Congress since until the present, the Fiftieth Con- 
gress. The form in which the amendment was introduced at this session 
by the chairman of the committee, and in which it is now reported without 
alteration, has been agreed upon by the leading temperance organizations 
of the country, by all of whom it is indorsed and supported. 

REPORT— ORIGINAL FORM. 

[Senate Report No. 1563. Forty-ninth Congress, first session. Only 
report on the Amendment in its original form.] 

Submitted by Senator Blair : 

The Committee on Education and Labor, to whom was referred the 
joint resolution of the Senate No. 6, "proposing an amendment to the 
Constitution in relation to alcoholic liquors and other poisonous bever- 
*See end of report, page 12. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. n 

ages," have considered tlie same, and by a majority of their number report 
the joint resolution back favorably, and recommend its passage, and that 
the proposed amendment be submitted to the legislatures of the States for 
their action, with a view to the ratification thereof, as provided in the 
Constitution. 

The committee does not deem it necessary to discuss the evils wrought 
by the use of alcohol, in its various forms and degrees of purity and of 
adulteration as a beverage, upon the life, health, industry, property, 
morals, character and destiny of the American people and of the world. 
Whatever be the remedy, whether by the enactment and enforcement of 
laws, by the forces of education, and motives addressed to the moral nature 
and will of the individual, or by a combination of all restrictive agencies, 
the whole people, with very few exceptions, admit the existence of the 
curse itself, and cry out, " Who and what shall deliver us from this body of 
death ? " Your committee believe 

PUBLIC SENTIMENT IS RIPE 

for the consideration and adoption of the best means, and of all the means, 
and the exertion of all the forces, both in the Nation and in the States, to 
effect the extirpation of the alcoholic evil. 

Thus far the people have struggled to accomplish this end with 

NO HELP FROM NATIONAL LAW. 

On the contrary, the recognition and protection given to alcoholic drink 
as property, as a legitimate article of manufacture everywhere and for all 
uses, and of commerce, both interstate and international, by the Constitu- 
tion and laws of the United States, have always constituted one of the chief 
obstacles to the success of that great movement known as the temperance 
reform, and until there be a change in the fundamental law of the nation 
giving complete jurisdiction over the subject to assist, and, if necessary, 
to reverse the action of the States by the power of the whole body politic 
throughout the whole national domain, the efforts of the people through 
State and local agencies will always be greatly hindered and generally in 
the end will fail. 

But, however that may be, the question considered by the committee is 
not one primarily touching the merits of the proposed amendment itself, 
but whether there is a sufficient public sentiment in favor of the submission 
of the amendment to the action of the people to require the passage of the 
joint resolution. 

The majority of the committee believe that the minds of the most care- 
ful and conservative students of the liquor problem are rapidly coming to 
the conclusion that this evil must and can only be removed by national 
legislation enforced by the national will in co-operation with the efforts 
of the States. 

In nearly every voting precinct of this country there are American citi- 



12 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

zens who desire the proposed amendment to the National Constitution. 
They are determined upon political action. They will have it through 
existing political organizations, or they will destroy one or both of the great 
organizations of to-day, and form one which will consent to take the sense 
of the people upon the question of amending the Constitution so as to give 
national jurisdiction over the traffic in strong drink. Why should they be 
denied the opportunity to be heard in the only forum which can pass upon 
the question? When any considerable and respectable portion of the 
American people desire to plead their cause before the great tribunal of sov- 
ereigns, who, in a free country, decide every fundamental issue in the last 
resort, it is the 

DUTY OF CONGRESS 

to enact such preliminary legislation as is here proposed, so that under the 
forms of the Constitution they can be heard on the question of its own 
amendment. To deny this is of the very essence of despotism, and for 
Congress unreasonably to refuse the hearing is just cause of revolution. 
The people will demand a hearing for every large and respectable minority, 
and to grant this opportunity is the purpose of this resolution. Whatever 
may be the result, all must abide by it. But there can be no justification of 
a denial of the right to be heard. 

Until that right is granted, there will be, there can be, no peace to 
political parties in this country. If there could be, it would prove that the 
nature of our government was already changed, and that under the forms 
of a progressive free republic we are become a hide-bound despotism, hav- 
ing a name to live, but really already dead. 

Your committee are unable at this late period of the session properly 
to present the great cause the promotion of which is the purpose of this 
resolution. Fortunately it is not necessary. We appeal to the universal 
sentiment which is the very basis of our political institutions, the right of 
every voting citizen to be heard at the polls upon every great question 
which concerns the public weal. Than this there can be none more impor- 
tant, and we earnestly hope the resolution may be adopted in the further- 
ance of the exercise of the primal rights of American sovereignty, which, 
are that of each citizen to be heard bj T all, and of any considerable portion 
of the people to demand a verdict of the whole upon great issues which 
concern the general weal. 

The following is the joint resolution as reported by the committee of 
the Forty- ninth Congress : 

AMENDMENT— ORIGINAL FORM. 
[Forty-ninth Congress, first session, S. R. 6.] 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each house concur- 
ring therein), that the following amendment to the Constitution be, and 
hereby is, proposed to the States, to become valid when ratified by the legis- 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 13 

latures of three-fourths of the several States, as provided in the Consti- 
tution : 

Article — . Section i. From and after the year of our Lord nine- 
teen hundred the manufacture and sale of distilled alcoholic intoxicating 
liquors, or alcoholic liquors any part of which is obtained by distillation or 
process equivalent thereto, or any intoxicating liquors mixed or adulterated 
with ardent spirits or with any poison whatever, except for medicinal, 
mechanical, chemical and scientific purposes, and for use in the arts, any- 
where within the United States and Territories thereof, shall cease ; and 
the importation of such liquors from foreign states and countries to the 
United States and Territories, and the exportation of such liquors from and 
the transportation thereof within and through any part of this country, 
except for the use and purposes aforesaid, shall be, and hereby are, forever 
thereafter prohibited. 

Sec. 2. Nothing in this article shall be construed to waive or abridge 
any existing power of Congress, nor the right, which is hereby recognized, 
of the people of any State or Territory, to enact laws to prevent the in- 
crease and for the suppression or regulation of the manufacture, sale and 
use of liquors and the ingredients thereof, any part of which is alcoholic, 
intoxicating, or poisonous, within its own limits, and for the exclusion of 
such liquors and ingredients therefrom at any time, as well before as after 
the close of the year of our Lord nineteen hundred ; but until then, and 
until ten years after the ratification hereof as provided in the next section, 
no State or Territory shall interfere with the transportation of said liquor 
or ingredients, in packages safely secured, over the usual lines of traffic, 
to other States and Territories wherein the manufacture, sale, and use 
thereof for other purposes and use than those excepted in the first section 
shall be lawful : Provided, That the true destination of such packages be 
plainly marked thereon. 

Sec. 3. Should this article not be ratified by three-fourths of the 
States on or before the last day of December, eighteen hundred and ninety, 
then the first section hereof shall take effect and be in force at the expira- 
tion of ten years from such ratification ; and the assent of any State to this 
article shall not be rescinded nor reversed. 

SEC. 4. Congress shall enforce this article by all needful legislation. 



THE FIRST VOTE. 

The first vote in relation to the Amendment in either form to be found 
recorded in the journals of Congress, was taken in the Senate about ten 
o'clock Saturday night, March 2, 1889, the dying hours of the Fiftieth Con- 
gress. Senator Blair, who had long and faithfully labored to secure unan- 
imous consent for its consideration, at that time spoke as follows : 

I ask the unanimous consent of the Senate that the joint resolution 
_(S. R. 12) proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States 
in relation to the manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation, 
and sale of alcoholic liquors be now considered. Before the question is put 
as to there being objection. I ask unanimous consent to say that this propo- 
sition has been pending in Congress for fourteen years. It has been twice 
favorably reported by committees of the Senate in different Congresses. I 
do not now ask the Senate to proceed to consider the joint resolution by 
debating it, but I would like the report to be read, which is brief, and that 



14 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

there be a vote. I desire a record upon the subject, and I think it is not 
too much to ask that this great subject may have at least ten minutes' con- 
sideration out of fourteen years' time. I hope no Senator will object." 

The question being put, " Is there objection to the present considera- 
tion of the joint resolution ? " Senator Harris, from Tennessee, objected. 
Senator Blair thereupon moved its consideration, and asked that the yeas 
and nays be recorded. This was ordered and the roll called, which resulted 
in yeas, thirteen; nays, thirty-three. Thirty Senators were either absent or 
paired. So the motion was not agreed to. 

Those voting to consider were Messrs. Blair, New Hampshire ; Bowen, 
Colorado ; Dawes, Massachusetts ; Dolph, Oregon ; Frye, Maine ; Hawley, 
Connecticut ; Jones, Nevada ; Mitchell, Oregon ; Palmer, Michigan ; Piatt, 
Connecticut ; Quay, Pennsylvania ; Sawyer, Wisconsin, and Stockbridge, 
Michigan, all Republicans. 

Those voting against consideration were Messrs. Blodgett, New Jersey ; 
Brown, Georgia ; Butler, South Carolina ; Call, Florida ; Cameron, Pennsyl- 
vania ; Coke, Texas ; Cullom, Illinois ; Daniel, Virginia ; Evarts, New 
York ; Faulkner, West Virginia ; George, Mississippi ; Gorman, Maryland ; 
Gray, Delaware ; Hampton, South Carolina ; Harris, Tennessee ; Hiscock, 
New York ; Ingalls, Kansas ; Jones, Arkansas ; Kenna, West Virginia ; 
McPherson, New Jersey ; Morgan, Alabama ; Morrill, Vermont ; Pasco, 
Florida ; Payne, Ohio ; Ransom, North Carolina ; Reagan, Texas ; Riddle- 
berger, Virginia; Sabin, Minnesota; Saulsbury, Delaware; Stewart, Ne- 
vada; Turpie, Indiana ; Vest, Missouri and Walthall, Mississippi -twenty- 
four Democrats and nine Republicans. (Names of Republicans printed in 
italics.) 

Of the absent or paired Senators, at least Messrs. Allison, Iowa ; Chace, 
Rhode Island ; Edmunds, Vermont ; Hale, Maine ; Hoar, Massachusetts ; 
Manderson, Nebraska ; Teller, Colorado ; and Wilson, Iowa,— Republicans — 
would have voted yea had they been present or not paired. 



NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY ADDRESS. 

BY AARON M. POWEl,I/. 

District Secretary of the National Temperance Society. 

[Extract from his address before the Senate Committee on Education 
and Labor, the address being incorporated as a part of the first favorable 
report on the Amendment in its present form. The first part was in ad- 
vocacy of a National Commission of Inquiry concerning the alcoholic 
liquor traffic] 

Permit me now to say something on the other measure which is before 
you, for a national prohibitory constitutional amendment, and the reasons 
why those whom I represent of the National Temperance Society, and I 
may say of all the other temperance bodies, feel that such a measure is 
called for at this time. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 15 

The text of the joint resolution, as it is before you, was revised before 
it came to Washington by the official representatives of the leading temper- 
ance organizations in the country. It was revised and indorsed by the 
official head of the Good Templars, the largest temperance organization in 
the world, I believe, not excepting the great organization of the Woman's 
Christian Temperance Union, by whom also it was indorsed ; by the official 
head of the Sons of Temperance, another great body, very numerous ; by 
the then chairman of the National Prohibitory Party committee, a very 
severe critic of measures ; it has been indorsed by the board of managers of 
the National Temperance Society, and the memorials which are before you, 
as I happen personally to know, represent all the leading State temperance 
organizations of both men and women in this country. 

I speak of this very general indorsement of the text of the joint resolu- 
tion as it is before you, that you may have before your minds the signifi- 
cance of such a measure, which has united such a body of people, including 
all the opponents of the liquor traffic organized in the various forms for 
active effort which they represent. 

The recent action of the Supreme Court of the United States in the 
Kansas appealed cases, has opened the way as never before for the begin- 
ning of what must be finally consummated in dealing with the liquor traffic 
before the question can be ultimately settled. It is impossible for the State 
alone and unaided in the exercise of the police power vested in it as defined 
by the Supreme Court, entirely to control the liquor traffic. It may do 
certain things in its State capacity, as Iowa, Maine, and Kansas are now 
doing, presenting to the world the remarkable benefits, even with the limi- 
tations under which they labor, of the prohibitory policy as against the 
license method of dealing with the drink traffic. But after the State has 
exhausted its resources under its inherent police power, then, as in Maine 
at the present time, comes up the right of a Maine liquor dealer to import 
liquors from foreign countries, and to come under the shield of the United 
States Government in the exercise of its authority, and in defiance of the 
State law go on with the sale of what the State law absolutely forbids. 

Maine has gone about as far as Maine can go ; Iowa has gone about as 
far as Iowa can go ; Kansas has«gone about as far as it is practicable for a 
State to go until the National Government co-operates with the States in 
the legitimate exercise of the police power inherent in the people for their 
self-preservation. 

Therefore, the time has come for Congress to consider this proposition 
on its merits, as related closely to the welfare of the nation, as well as the 
States. In New Hampshire, for instance, it would be impossible for the 
State at present to control, as it is impossible for Maine to control, the 
matter of liquor transportation. I had the privilege, on one occasion, with 
a distinguished citizen of Portland, Me., of visiting the store-room then in 
use, under the city hall, for seized liquors under the Maine law, where, on 
the order of the court, periodically, they were destroyed. I saw what would 



1 6 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

have grieved a bummer and a drinker, but gave me great pleasure — the 
bungs knocked out of various beer barrels and the heads broken off of 
various bottles, and the liquors poured down the immense sewer, to run off 
into the Portland Harbor ; but there was this peculiarity, that right across 
the line, in the State which your honorable chairman represents here, there 
is an immense brewery, and all those barrels, if I remember aright, were 
from a New Hampshire brewery. 

The difficulty of transportation comes in to afflict Maine in a way which 
it is possible for the National Government only to remove ; and what is 
true of Maine and New Hampshire would be true of Iowa and Wisconsin. 
Iowa will be troubled as long as Wisconsin keeps its breweries in operation 
at Milwaukee, and takes from Sioux City that acquitted (but, as many 
people believe, guilty,) brewer, and sets him up in business in Wisconsin to 
send back again into Iowa, by one subterfuge and another, possibly, the 
beer which he may make in Wisconsin, but may not make longer in Iowa. 

At any rate, the United States Government is alone competent to con- 
trol thoroughly the question of liquor transportation. Your recent legis- 
lation with regard to interstate commerce should be so extended as to 
control liquor transportation in the interest of the States which are trying 
the prohibition policy as against license. 

Then, again, there is the liquor exportation, which is one of the greatest 
scandals of the present time in the name of what are called Christian 
countries, such as America and Great Britain, especially, and including 
Germany, Holland, and France. One of the greatest possible scandals in 
the name of what are called civilized and Christian countries, is the flood- 
ing of Africa with intoxicating beverages, which are sweeping away the 
native races of Africa and the western Pacific islands almost as if a fire 
of destruction were running through among those native people. And 
yet for the sake of the paltry gain to a few people, the distillers of New 
England rum, and the manufacturers of these intoxicants, these great 
countries permit that exportation to go on to the ruin of the native races. 
What are^ the missionary efforts which are put forth by Christian people 
amounting to, relatively, in the face of such a neutralizing influence as is ■ 
carried to those countries by these intoxicants which are sent forth ? There 
were sent from America over 922,000 gallons, I think, in 1885. I have not 
all the figures here, but they are of very considerable magnitude, and they 
impose, gentlemen, a grave responsibility upon the Congress of the United 
States to devise some way by which that liquor exportation may be 
suppressed. 

It needs to be borne in mind, as it seems to me, in connection with 
this liquor problem, more fully than it has been hitherto, that our Govern- 
ment is a dual government ; that we are citizens both of the United States, 
and citizens of our respective States, and that there is to be a relation of 
co-operation rather than antagonism in such grave and important legisla- 
tive interests as are involved in dealing with the liquor traffic, when the 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 17 

States, as I have stated, are quite inadequate to deal alone effectively with, 
the subject. It is said that prohibition does not prohibit ; but prohibition 
has not yet had a chance to prohibit, and largely because of the attitude of 
the Government of the United States on the subject, perpetuating the drink 
interest under the influence of the internal revenue bribe, practically by its 
many million bribery fund applied to the conscience of the nation. Strike 
off, as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union are asking you to do, the 
internal revenue tax from the drink, and an immense obstacle would be 
taken out of the way of a reasonable settlement of this question, as many 
of us believe. 

I wish to present another reason which is of a practical character why 
the adoption of the joint resolution and relegating it to the States for their 
ratification would be of value. I would take the liquor question out of 
partisan politics. You know enough about the local campaigns in the 
several States you represent to know how extremely critical this very 
troublesome question is becoming just now in political life. I was reminded 
in getting out of my sleeping-car yesterday in coming to Washington, and 
entering one of the street-cars of this city in the midst of a bevy of young, 
bright, intelligent-looking colored children, with their hands full of school 
books, how momentous was the change in the history of Washington, run- 
ning back only a very few years within the memory of you, gentlemen, 
who are here, when the children of that race in this very capital city of the 
nation were subjects for the auction block. They are not now, thank God. 
The slavery question which divided the great parties is gone and settled 
practically. The legacy it left behind, unhappily is not disposed of yet. 
Here is a not less important issue in the politics of to-day. How is that to 
be settled ? Precisely by the method we propose to you to adopt, which 
was followed in dealing with the question of slavery— the adoption of a 
constitutional amendment which made it impracticable for any State here- 
after to resurrect slavery and re-establish it on its soil. So the drink ques- 
tion, as some of us believe, can never be settled until it is settled right, and 
the verdict of the nation recorded on this subject as it has been recorded on 
the other in the literal text of the Constitution of the United States. 

I believe, gentlemen, that you will agree with me that there are perils 
confronting the future of this Republic which will warrant the action we 
ask at your hands. For instance, one of your colleagues, whom I do not 
see present, though I believe he is a member of your committee (Senator 
Palmer), has called your attention and that of the country, to the great 
danger from foreign immigration, and has proposed some wholesome limi- 
tations. Why this danger? Chiefly because the hordes that come into 
New York and the other ports, covering the decks of our steamers, are peo- 
ple who come from an entirely different social environment from that of 
the people of Iowa, and of this country generally, with regard to the use of 
strong drink. They come here accustomed to the drinking habits, unedu- 
cated with regard to self-control. They come here ignorant of the forms of 



1 8 National Prohibitory Ame?idment Guide. 

our Government. They come here to be, as in Chicago, the dupes and vic- 
tims of designing demagogues, and finally to jeopardize the city and the 
peace of the country. 

These emigrants from foreign countries are perilous because we perpet- 
uate the saloon system in the nation. You will remember how the testi- 
mony in the Chicago trials pointed to the saloons as the headquarters of 
the anarchists, how their conspiracies were generated there, how they met 
there to plot and plan against the peace of the city and the country. What 
is true of Chicago in that respect, is true of other of our great cities. It 
seems to me that it is the part of wisdom to recognize the danger thus in- 
volved. 

Let me also ask your attention for a moment to the position of the mil- 
lions of colored people at the South— ignorant, easily duped, as recently at 
Atlanta by an infamous forgery, putting, as they thought, the words of 
Lincoln before them, as opposed to the abolition of saloons in Atlanta, crowd- 
ing like a flock of sheep, as one of your Senatorial associates told me not 
long ago, under the lead of the liquor demagogues to vote back again the 
saloons into Atlanta. The ignorant millions of colored citizens in the 
South need national action, conjointly with the States, to protect them from 
the saloon ravages. Again, look at the present and increasing perils of 
great cities. Wendell Phillips used to say that the Tories of England look 
across the Atlantic and ask us to show them a well-governed city, and we 
can not do it. Practically it is as true to-day as when Mr. Phillips used to 
say it. What is the danger and what is the trouble ? It is not wholly, but 
very largely, due to the presence of the saloon system in those cities. Ten 
thousand saloons, or thereabouts, in New York, ten thousand of those places 
which the London Times fitly characterized, speaking of their counterparts 
in London, as so many political club houses ; ten thousand centers of cor- 
ruption, conspiracy, anarchy, and immorality. 

It seems to those whom I represent that in bringing this question before 
you, gentlemen, we bring to you something that is great in its magnitude as 
a commercial interest, greater still in importance in its moral aspect as 
affecting the American home, greater still as affecting the stability and 
the perpetuity of republican institutions in this country. Day before yes- 
terday I was an interested spectator, with many others, in that magnifi- 
cently stone-arched Assembly chamber at Albany, and many eyes were 
turned toward the ceiling, querying whether or not during the short session 
that magnificent piece of stone work was to fall down and crush the honor- 
able members of the legislature sitting under it. But they have another 
stone there, figuratively ; a stone upon which if they fall they are in immi- 
nent danger of being broken, and if it falls upon them they are in greater 
danger still of being ground to powder. 

That stone is the liquor traffic. That stone is also here, gentlemen, con- 
fronting the Congress of the United States. 

The representative of the Brewers' Association, to whom I referred in 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 19 

the beginning of my remarks, boasted once that a certain number of mem- 
bers of the other House who had voted for a suspension of the rules to pass 
the Commission of Inquiry bill, and who on another occasion had voted to 
create the House Select Committee on the Alcoholic Liquor Traffic, had lost 
their elections to Congress subsequently, on account of those votes. They 
certainly lost their elections, and I dare say what he said was true, for the 
brewers and their allies were very active in securing their defeat ; but I be- 
lieve that the time is not far distant when the men who refuse to heed the 
requests of the large number of petitioners we represent, will be more in 
danger of losing their elections than the men who vote as we ask in these 
legislative halls. 

But, however that may be, in closing, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, 
let me beg of you to remember that this is your opportunity to lift this 
question to a higher level of thought ; that is the real statesmanship which 
is needed in the interest of humanity, in the interest of the Republic. Em- 
erson somewhere says that God links together opportunity and responsi- 
bility. The opportunity not only is yours but the responsibility is yours. 
In the name of the petitioners I beg of you to hear and heed their request 
for the adoption of both these measures. 



NATIONAL W. C. T. U. ARGUMENT. 

BY ADA M. BITTENBENDER. 

[Submitted to the Senate Committee on Education and Labor in behalf 
of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and incorporated as 
a part of the first favorable report on the Amendment in its present form.] 

Gentlemen of the Committee : The National Woman's Christian 
Temperance Union, which, as superintendent of legislation and petitions, 
I have the honor to represent, agrees with you, Mr. Chairman, that "the 
real citadel of the rum curse is the National Constitution." Therefore, the 
250,000 women of our Republic, who are banded together in this temperance 
organization, have petitioned Congress for submission of such an amend- 
ment to the Constitution as shall, when ratified, break up this defense and 
turn the national Government into a home-protection fortress. The Blair 
joint resolution (S. R. 12), which was introduced in the Senate December 
12, 1887, and referred to this committee, meets with our approval in provid- 
ing as follows : 

" Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled {two-thirds of each house concur- 
ring therein), That the following amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States be, and hereby is, proposed to the States, to become valid 
when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States as 
provided in the Constitution : 

" Article — . Section i. ' The manufacture, importation, exportation, 
transportation, and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage shall be, and 



20 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

hereby is, forever prohibited in the United States, and in every place sub- 
ject to their j urisdiction . 

" SEC. 2. Congress shall enforce this article by all needful legislation.' 

We realize the inefficacy of State prohibitory laws while the General 
Government, having exclusive jurisdiction over importation and interstate 
transportation, recognizes alcoholic beverages as legitimate subjects of com- 
merce. And while we do not propose to lessen our efforts for prohibition by 
State legislation, we do intend henceforth to work with greater zeal for this 
amendment to the National Constitution. 

We believe alcoholic intemperance to be the greatest evil known, and 
the alcoholic drink traffic the greatest curse of humanity. We believe the 
traffic costs our Government, directly and indirectly— for outlay in drink, 
losses to employers and employes in time wasted, non-productive work by 
men in the liquor trades, value of grain and fruits destroyed in breweries 
and distilleries, interest on capital employed in the manufacture and sale, 
amounts paid to support paupers, criminals, insane, and idiots, made such by 
drink, charity made necessary by drink, medical attendance and medicine in 
sickness caused by drink, extra police, court expenses, etc. — at least $2,000,- 
000,000 annually. " In return for this," as says Rev. T. F. Parker, who has 
made a close study of the subject, "the nation receives 500 murders, 500 
suicides, 100,000 criminals, 200,000 paupers, 60,000 deaths from drunken- 
ness, 600,000 besotted drunkards, 600,000 moderate drinkers who will be 
sots ten years hence, 500,000 homes destroyed, 1,000,000 children worse 
than orphaned. And if the country should be searched from center to cir- 
cumference, it would be impossible to find any good resulting from the 
traffic or a single reason why it should exist longer." 

The amount returned in tax and license money is such a small fraction 
of the pecuniary loss sustained in consequence of the traffic's existence, it 
sinks nearly to insignificance ; and when compared with the inexpressibly 
vast amount of grief, physical pain, and soul-blighting caused, it has no 
weight whatever. 

If the evils and losses resulting from the drink traffic are not so great 
as claimed by temperance advocates, the advocates of the system, self-mis- 
named "friends of personal liberty," have it within their power to cause 
the truth to be known by favoring the passage of the bill for appointment 
of an impartial commission to investigate the whole matter, the passage of 
which has been for fifteen years continuously petitioned for by the temper- 
ance people of our country, and at this session of Congress, passed the Sen- 
ate for the seventh time, only to be again pigeon-holed in committee-room 
of the House of Representatives at the behest of certain agents of the 
traffic, who boldly declare the fact. 

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union rejoices that the resolution 
has been changed from that introduced in former Congresses, so as to include 
fermented liquors. This change is in harmony with all State prohibitory 
legislation. We believe the use of beer to be as injurious in its effects as 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 21 

that of distilled liquors. That it is so on the human system the observa- 
tions of life insurance companies, who make risks in human life a business, 
confirm. Colonel Greene, president of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insur- 
ance Company, in a communication on this subject, to The Voice, in Sep- 
tember, 18S4, said : 

"I protest against the notion so prevalent and so industriously urged 
that beer is harmless, and a desirable substitute for the more concentrated 
liquors. What beer may be and what it may do in other countries and cli- 
mates I do not know from observation. That in this country and climate 
its use is an evil, only less than the use of whisky, if less on the whole, and 
that its effect is only longer delayed, not so immediately and obviously bad, 
its incidents not so repulsive, but destructive in the end, I have seen abun- 
dant proof. In one of our largest cities, containing a great population of 
beer drinkers, I had occasion to note the deaths among a large group of 
persons whose habits, in their own eyes and in those of their friends and 
physicians, were temperate ; but they were habitual users of beer. When 
the observation began they were, upon the average, something under mid- 
dle age, and they were, of course, selected lives. For two or three years 
there was nothing very remarkable to be noted among this group. Pres- 
ently death began to strike it, and, until it had dwindled to a fraction of its 
original proportions, the mortality in it was astounding in extent, and still 
more remarkable in the manifest identity of cause and mode. There was 
no mistaking it ; the history was almost invariable ; robust, apparent 
health, full muscles, a fair outside, increasing weight, florid face ; then a 
touch of cold or a sniff of malaria, and instantly some acute disease, with 
almost invariably typhoid symptoms, was in violent action, and in ten days, 
or less, ended it. It was as if the system had been kept fair outside, while 
within it was eaten to a shell ; and at the first touch of disease there was 
utter collapse ; every fiber was poisoned and weak. And this, in its main 
features, varying of course in degree, has been my observation of beer 
drinking, everywhere. It is peculiarly deceptive at first ; it is thoroughly 
destructive at the last." 

The presidents of seven other leading life insurance companies indorsed 
the above as being similar to their own observations in letters to The Voice, 
published in October, 1884, viz. : Connecticut General Life Insurance Com- 
pany, Home Life Insurance Company, United States Life Insurance Com- 
pany, Southern Mutual Life Insurance Company (Kentucky), State Mutual 
Life Assurance Company, Pennsylvania Mutual Life Insurance Company, 
and the National Life Insurance Company. The secretary of the Hartford 
Life and Annuity Insurance Company also wrote to the same effect. 

Nearly all medical writers o f to-day record similar observations in re- 
gard to the use of beer, and, in effect, say : It is alcohol in liquors, either 
the fermented or distilled, which does the damage — a less percentage in the 
fermented, but when enough of either drink has been taken, containing the 
same amount of alcohol, the like alcoholic effect uniformly follows. Among 
those of this country expressing such opinion, we would cite Dr. William 
Hargreaves, author of " Alcohol and Man " and "Alcohol and Science"; 
Dr. Daniel Dorchester, author of "The Liquor Problem"; Dr. Thomas 
Sewell, whose plates, representing some of the morbid changes which take 
place in the stomach from alcoholic intemperance, condense to a few pages 



22 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

the written record of volumes ; Dr. N. S. Davis, professor of practical and 
clinical medicine in the Northwestern University ; Dr. A. B. Palmer, profes- 
sor of pathology and practice in the University of Michigan ; Dr. William 
Pepper, of the University of Pennsylvania, the last three being authors of 
noted works on practice of medicine. 

The medical profession to-day generally proclaim against the self-pre- 
scribed medicinal use of alcohol, and as a beverage ; and many physicians 
have entirely discarded its use in the treatment of disease. They class it 
among poisons, and as having no " definite food value." The International 
Medical Congress, the highest medical body in the world, during its session 
at Philadelphia in September, 1876, declared as follows : 

" First. Alcohol is not shown to have a definite food value by any of the 
usual methods of chemical analysis or physiological investigation. 

" Second. Its use as a medicine is chiefly as a cardiac (relating to the 
heart) stimulant, and often admits of substitution. 

"Third. As a medicine it is not well fitted for self prescription by the 
laity, and the medical profession is not accountable for such administration 
or for the enormous evils resulting therefrom." 

The declaration, signed by Edward Delafield, M. D., president College 
of Physicians and Surgeons, and of Roosevelt Hospital ; C. R. Agnew, M. D., 
ex-president Medical Society of the State of New York ; Stephen Smith, 
M. D., surgeon Bellevue Hospital, commissioner of health, and president 
American Health Association, and one hundred and twenty others of the 
most eminent physicians of New York and vicinity, is also to the point and 
worthy of consideration. It reads as follows : 

" (1) In view of the alarming prevalence and ill effects of intemper- 
ance, with which none are so familiar as members of the medical profession, 
and which have called forth from eminent English physicians the voice of 
warning to the people of Great Britain concerning the use of alcoholic 
beverages, we, the undersigned, members of the medical profession of New 
York and vicinity, unite in the declaration that we believe alcohol should be 
classed with other powerful drugs ; that when prescribed medicinally it 
should be with conscientious caution and a sense of grave responsibility. 

" (2) We are of opinion that the use of alcoholic liquor as a beverage 
is productive of a large amount of physical disease ; that it entails diseased 
appetites upon offspring ; and that it is the cause of a large percentage of 
the crime and pauperism of our cities and country. 

*.' (3) We would welcome any judicious and effective legislation, state 
and national, which should seek to confine the traffic in alcohol to the legiti- 
mate purposes of medical and other sciences, art, and mechanism. ' ' 

The celebrated opinion of the United States Supreme Court, in the 
Kansas liquor cases, determined two of the most vexed questions pertinent 
to this discussion : the one as to the right of manufacturing alcoholics for 
personal use, and the other as to the right of compensation for diminution in 
the value of property resulting from outlawing the liquor business. With 
your permission I will incorporate a portion of this opinion in my argument. 
As to the first (123 U. S., 623) the court, in part, said : 



National Prohibitory Ameridment Guide. 23 

"It is, however, contended that although the State may prohibit the 
manufacture of intoxicating liquors for sale or barter within her limits for 
general use as a beverage, ' no convention or legislature has the right, under 
our form of government, to prohibit any citizen from manufacturing for his 
own use, or for export, or storage, any article of food or drink not endanger- 
ing or affecting the rights of others.' The argument made in support of 
the first branch of this proposition, briefly stated, is, that in the implied 
compact between the State and the citizen certain rights are reserved by the 
latter, which are guaranteed by the constitutional provision protecting per- 
sons against being deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process 
of law, and with which the State can not interfere ; that among those rights 
is that of manufacturing for one's use either food or drink ; and that while, 
according to the doctrines of the commune, the State may control the tastes, 
appetites, habits, dress, food, and drink of the people, our system of govern- 
ment, based upon the individuality and intelligence of the citizen, does not 
claim to control him, except as to his conduct to others, leaving him the 
sole judge as to all that only affects himself. 

* ' It will be observed that the proposition, and the argument made in 
support of it, equally concede that the right to manufacture drink for one's 
personal use is subject to the condition that such manufacture does not en- 
danger or affect the rights of others. If such manufacture does prejudi- 
cially affect the rights and interests of the community, it follows from the 
very premises stated that society has the power to protect itself, by legisla- 
tion, against the injurious consequences of that business. As was said in 
Munn v. Illinois (94 U. S., 124), while power does not exist with the whole 
people to control rights that are purely and exclusively private, government 
may require ' each citizen so to conduct himself, and so to use his own prop- 
erty, as not unnecessarily to injure another.' 

" But by whom, or by what authority, is it to be determined whether 
the manufacture of particular articles of drink, either for general use or for 
the personal use of the maker, will injuriously affect the public ? Power to 
determine such questions, so as to bind all, must exist somewhere, else 
society will be at the mercy of the few who, regarding only their own appe- 
tites or passions, may be willing to imperil the peace and security of the 
many, provided only they are permitted to do as they please. Under our 
system that power is lodged with the legislative branch of the Government. 
It belongs to that department to exert what are known as the police powers 
of the State, and to determine primarily what measures are appropriate or 
needful for the protection of the public morals, the public health, or the 
public safety. * * * 

"Keeping in view these principles, as governing the relations of the 
judicial and legislative departments of government with each other, it is 
difficult to perceive any ground for the judiciary to declare that the prohibi- 
tion by Kansas of the manufacture or sale, within her limits, of intoxicat- 
ing liquors for general use there as a beverage, is not fairly adapted to the 
end of protecting the community against the evils which confessedly result 
from the excessive use of ardent spirits. There is no justification for hold- 
ing that the State, under the guise merely of police regulations, is here 
aiming to deprive the citizen of his constitutional rights ; for we can not shut 
out of view the fact, within the knowledge of all, that the public health, the 
public morals, and the public safety may be endangered by the general use 
of intoxicating drinks ; nor the fact, established by statistics accessible to 
every one, that the idleness, disorder, pauperism, and crime existing in the 
country are, in some degree at least, traceable to this evil. If, therefore, a 
State decrees the absolute prohibition of the manufacture and sale, within 
her limits, of intoxicating liquors for other than medical, scientific, and 



24 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

manufacturing purposes, to be necessary to the peace and security of society, 
the courts can not, without usurping legislative functions, override the will 
of the people as thus expressed by their chosen representatives. * * * 

" And so if, in the judgment of the legislature, the manufacture of in- 
toxicating liquors for the maker's own use as a beverage would tend to 
cripple, if it did not defeat, the effect to guard the community against the 
evils attending the excessive use of such liquors, it is not for the courts, 
upon their views as to what is best and safest for the community, to dis- 
regard the legislative determination of that question. So far from such a 
regulation having no relation to the general end sought to be accomplished, 
the entire scheme of prohibition as embodied in the constitution and laws 
of Kansas might fail if the right of each citizen to manufacture intoxicating 
liquors for his own use as a beverage were recognized. Such a right does 
not inhere in citizenship. Nor can it be said that government interferes with 
or impairs any one's constitutional rights of liberty or of property when it 
determines that the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks for general 
or individual use as a beverage are, or may become, hurtful to society and 
constitute, therefore, a business in which no one may lawfully engage. 
Those rights are best secured, in our government, by the observance upon 
the part of all of such regulations as are established by competent authority 
to promote the common good. No one may rightfully do that which the 
law-making power upon reasonable grounds declares to be prejudicial to the 
general welfare. ' ' 

In determining the second of these vexed questions, the court said (123 
U. S., 664) : 

" If we do not misapprehend the position of defendants, it is contended 
that as the primary and principal use of beer is as a beverage ; as their re- 
spective breweries were erected when it was lawful to engage in the manu- 
facture of beer for every purpose — as such establishments will become of no 
value as property or, at least, will be materially diminished in value if not 
employed in the manufacture of beer for every purpose, the prohibition upon 
their being so employed is in effect a taking of property for public use with- 
out compensation, and depriving the citizen of his property without due 
process of law. In other words, although the State, in the exercise of her 
police powers, may lawfully prohibit the manufacture and sale within her 
limits of intoxicating liquors to be used as a beverage, legislation having 
that object in view can not be enforced against those who at the time hap- 
pen to own property, the chief value of which consists in its fitness for such 
manufacturing purposes, unless compensation is first made for the diminu- 
tion in the value of their property, resulting from such prohibitory enact- 
ments. 

"This interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment is inadmissible. It 
can not be supposed that the State intended, by adopting that amendment, 
to impose restraints upon the exercise of their powers for the protection of 
the safety, health, or morals of the community. In respect to contracts the 
obligations of which are protected against hostile State legislation, this 
court in Butchers' Union Co. v. Crescent City Co., in U. S., 751, said that 
the State could not by any contract limit the exercise of her power to the 
prejudice of the public health and the public morals. So, in Stone y. Mis- 
sissippi, 101 U. S., 816, where the Constitution was invoked against the 
repeal by the State of a charter granted to a private corporation to conduct 
a lottery, and for which that corporation paid to the State a valuable consid- 
eration in money, the court said : ' No legislature can bargain away the 
public health or the public morals. The people themselves can not do it, 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 25 

much less their servants. Government is organized with a view to their 
preservation, and can not divest itself of the power to provide for them.' 
Again, in New Orleans Gas Co. v. Louisiana Light Co., 115 U. S., 650, 672 : 
' The constitutional prohibition upon State laws impairing the obligation of 
contracts does not restrict the power of the State to protect the public 
health, the public morals, or the public safety, as the one or the other may 
be involved in the execution of such contracts. Rights and privileges aris- 
ing from contracts with a State are subject to regulations for the protection 
of the public health, the public morals, and the public safety, in the same 
sense and to the same extent as are all contracts and all property, whether 
owned by persons or corporations.' 

"The principle that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or prop- 
erty without due process of law was embodied, in substance, in the consti- 
tution of nearly all, if not all, of the States at the time of the adoption of 
the Fourteenth Amendment ; and it has never been regarded as incompatible 
with the principle equally vital, because essential to the peace and safety of 
society, that all property in this country is held under the implied obliga- 
tion that the owner's use of it shall not be injurious to the community. * * 

" As already stated, the present case must be governed by principles 
that do not involve the power of eminent domain, in the exercise of which 
property may not be taken for public use without compensation. A prohi- 
bition simply upon the use of property for purposes that are declared by 
valid legislation to be injurious to the health, morals, or safety to the com- 
munity can not in any just sense be deemed a taking or an appropriation 
of property for the public benefit. Such legislation does not disturb the 
owner in the control or use of his property for lawful purposes, nor restrict 
his right to dispose of it ; but is only a declaration by the State that its use 
by any one for certain forbidden purposes, is prejudicial to the public inter- 
ests. * * * The power which the States have of prohibiting such use 
by individuals of their property as will be prejudicial to the health, the 
morals, or the safety of the public is not, and consistentl}- with the exist- 
ence and safety of organized society can not be, burdened with the condi- 
tion that the State must compensate such individual owners foi pecuniary 
losses they may sustain by reason of their not being permitted, by a nox- 
ious use of their property, to inflict injury upon the community. The exer- 
cise of the police power by the destruction of property which is itself a 
public nuisance, or the prohibition of its use in a particular way, whereby 
its value becomes depreciated, is very different from taking property for 
public use or from depriving a person of his property without due process 
of law. In the one case a nuisance only is abated ; in the other unoffend- 
ing property is taken away from an innocent owner. 

"It is true that when the defendants in these cases purchased or 
erected their breweries the laws of the State did not forbid the manufacture 
of intoxicating liquors. But the State did not thereby give any assurance 
or come under an obligation that its legislation upon that subject would 
remain unchanged. Indeed, as was said in Stone v. Mississippi, 101 U. S., 
the supervision of the public health and the public morals is a govern- 
mental power, ' continuing in its nature,' and 'to be dealt with as the spe- 
cial exigencies of the moment may require,' and that ' for this purpose the 
largest legislative discretion is allowed, and the discretion can not be 
parted with, any more than the power itself.' So in Beer Co. v. Massachu- 
setts, 97 U. S., 32 : ' If the public safety or the public morals require the 
discontinuance of any manufacture or traffic, the hand of the legislature 
can not be stayed from providing for its discontinuance by any incidental 
inconvenience which individuals or corporations may suffer.' " 



26 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide, 

These decisions have added considerable impetus to the temperance 
movement. 

The decision of the same court in the Iowa liquor transportation case, 
Bowman v. the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, delivered 
March 19, 1888, is equally to the point, the effect of which has been and 
will continue to be, to cause temperance workers to exert more energy for 
this National Amendment until it shall have become embodied in the 
supreme law. In this case the court said : 

" For the purpose of protecting its people against the evils of intem- 
perance, it has the right to prohibit the manufacture within its limits of 
intoxicating liquors ; it may also prohibit all domestic commerce in them 
between its own inhabitants, whether the articles are introduced from other 
states or from foreign countries ; it may punish those who sell them in vio- 
lation of its laws ; it may adopt any measures tending, even indirectly and 
remotely, to make the policy effective, until it passes the line of power 
delegated to Congress under the Constitution. It can not, without the con- 
sent of Congress, expressed or implied, regulate commerce between its peo- 
ple and those of the other States of the Union in order to effect its end, 
however desirable such a regulation might be. * * * The power to reg- 
ulate or forbid the sale of a commodity after it has been brought into the 
State, does not carry with it the right and power to prevent its introduction 
by transportation from another State." 

Under this decision should every State and Territory but one prohibit 
the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, within their respective 
borders, enough could be manufactured in that one to satisfy the unnatural 
thirst of this entire land. And if in time such prohibition should become 
the universal policy of our country, as far as State and Territorial legisla- 
tion could make it, through importation and interstate transportation the 
demand could still be supplied, our grains and fruits being exported to be 
returned manufactured into these body and soul corrupting beverages, and 
carried to consumers, protected, if needs be, by the armies of the nation. 
Therefore, to put an end to this drink traffic without the assistance of 
national action, is an impossibility. 

It is asked, ' ' May not the strong hand of prohibition be made to grasp 
the commodity as it reaches its destination and prevent its sale?" The 
United States Supreme Court in the Iowa case above cited, while disclaim- 
ing the expression of an opinion on this point because the question did not 
arise in the case, interlards as follows, which may be safely taken as what 
would be its opinion if called upon to deliver : • 

" It is easier to think that the right of importation from abroad and of 
transportation from one State to another includes, by necessary implica- 
tion, the right of the importer to sell in unbroken packages at the place 
where the transit terminates ; for the very purpose and motive of that 
branch of commerce which consists in transportation is that other and 
consequent act of commerce which consists in the sale and exchange of the 
commodities transported. Such, indeed, was the point decided in the case 
of Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheat., 419, as to foreign commerce, with the 
express statement, in the opinion of Chief Justice Marshall, that the con- 
clusion would be the same in a case of commerce among the States." 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 27 

The effect of this decision was set forth in the dissenting opinion 
signed by Chief Justice Waite and Associate Justices Harlan and Gray, in 
which they said : 

"If, therefore, as the court now decides, the Constitution gives the 
right to transport intoxicating liquors into Iowa from another State, and if 
that right carries with it as one of its essential ingredients authority in the 
consignee to sell or exchange such articles after they are so brought in and 
while in his possession in the original packages, it is manifest that the reg- 
ulation forbidding sales of intoxicating liquors within the State for other 
than medicinal, mechanical, culinary, or sacramental purposes, and then 
only under a permit from a board of supervisors, will be of little practical 
value. In this view, any one, even a citizen of Iowa, desiring to sell intox- 
icating liquors in that State, need only arrange to have them delivered to 
him from some point in another State in packages of varying sizes, as may 
suit customers. Or he may erect his manufacturing establishment or ware- 
house just across the Iowa line, in some State having a different public 
policy, and thence with wagons transport liquors into Iowa in original 
packages. If the State arraigns him for a violation of her laws, he may 
claim — and under the principles of the present decision it may become 
difficult to dispute the claim — that although such laws were enacted solely 
to protect the health and morals of the people and to promote peace and 
good order among them, and although they are fairly adapted to accom- 
plish those objects, yet the Constitution of the United States, without any 
action on the part of Congress, secures to him the right to bring or receive 
from other States intoxicating liquors, in original packages and to sell 
them, while held by him in such packages, to all choosing to buy them." 

So, then, we would repeat with emphasis our belief in the impossibility 
of satisfactorily controlling this accursed business without the help of 
national constitutional prohibition. 

This prohibitory amendment to the National Constitution proposes to 
place the General Government in harmony with, instead of antagonistic to, 
enlightened State legislation for suppression of this gigantic evil— to re-inforce 
instead of nullifying such legislation under the plea that alcoholic drinks 
are " merchantable commodities or known articles of commerce, and that, 
consequently, the Constitution, by the mere grant to Congress of the power 
to regulate commerce, operates, in the absence of legislation, to establish 
unrestricted trade among the States of the Union in such commodities or 
articles." In fact, it proposes to declare, as the will of this great American 
people, that throughout the nation's domain there shall be no rights of 
property in that which has been found to be so universally destructive to 
social happiness and public order. 

This amendment is directed against the action of private individuals, 
as well as against the action of States and the United States. It declares 
that "the manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation, and sale 
of all alcoholic liquors, as a beverage, shall be, and hereby is, forever pro- 
hibited," etc. It is unlike section 1 of the fourteenth amendment, which 
prohibits State action only. It is like the thirteenth amendment, being a 
positive declaration that the thing itself shall not exist. In enforcing the 
thirteenth amendment, Congress deals with the subject matter. In enforc- 



28 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

ing this amendment, Congress would have the subject matter to deal with. 
This is as we would have it. The evil is a national one. The traffic is 
carried on everywhere. No place and no person of this great nation is free 
from its polluting influence. How to end its pernicious existence is pecul- 
iarly a national question — more of a national question than was slavery, 
and as much so as is the tariff. And when solved it is proper that the Gen- 
eral Government should be intrusted with the duty of carrying out the 
national will. 

The power of Congress thus bestowed would not be exclusive, but State 
legislation to enforce the amendment would have to yield when in conflict 
with or repugnant to Congressional legislation. 

As regards the uses of alcoholics otherwise than as a beverage, the 
States would retain the right to exert any power over them that they now 
possess. 

The change proposed would only introduce into the National Constitu- 
tion provisions of the same general character as those which now confer 
power on Congress to establish uniform laws respecting bankruptcies, slav- 
ery, involuntary servitude, and the like, which are as clearly domestic in 
their character, as far as State governments are concerned, as is the subject 
matter of this amendment. 

The main argument used against State prohibitory legislation is that 
prohibition does not prohibit. The quasi-prohibitory legislation of indi- 
vidual States is expected to accomplish that which is impossible. At least 
by this cry, incessantly kept up, advocates of the saloon system hope 
longer to stave off consideration of the truth, so well known to you, gen- 
tlemen of the committee, that complete legislation prohibiting the nefa- 
rious traffic has never been enacted in this country and never will be until 
legislation takes the form of controlling it from the point of manufacture 
or place of entering our nation's domain, to the mouth of consumers ; and 
that this can not be done until the national branch of this complex Gov- 
ernment, instead of recognizing alcoholic beverages as lawful commerce, 
and instead of giving them protection and license under its internal 
revenue laws, shall have united with State branches in legislating for their 
destruction. 

Instead of being a reason for doubting the efficacy of the method, to 
us it is simply marvelous that, under the antagonism of the National Gov- 
ernment, the so-called Prohibition States have succeeded in suppressing 
the internal traffic in intoxicants to the extent they have. That they have 
largely succeeded is evident without actual knowledge on the subject, 
otherwise those engaged in the traffic and their allies would not have as- 
sumed the attitude of bitter opposition. As to the degree of suppression 
and result of the method as a practical remedy for the evils of intemper- 
ance, and for promotion of sobriety and morality, take the record of Kan- 
sas as shown in the last biennial message of the Governor of that State, 
delivered to the legislature January n, 1887, in which he said : 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 2Q 

"Three general elections have been held in Kansas since the adoption 
of the Prohibition Amendment to the Constitution. At each of these elec 
tions the people have re-affirmed their decision against the manufacture or 
sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage by electing legislatures pledged 
to the support of the amendment. At the election in November last, this 
question was a paramount issue, and again, by an emphatic majority, the 
sovereign verdict of the people was pronounced against the saloon. * * * 
A great reform has certainly been accomplished in Kansas. Intemperance 
is steadily and surely decreasing. In thousands of homes where want and 
wretchedness and suffering were once familiar guests, plentj', happiness, 
and contentment now abide. Thousands of wives and children are better 
clothed and fed than they were when the saloons absorbed the earnings of 
husbands and fathers. The marvelous material growth of the State during 
the past six years has been accompanied by an equally marvelous moral 
progress, and it can be fairly and truthfully asserted that in no portion of 
the civilized world can a million and a half of people be found who are 
more temperate than are the people of Kansas. * * * 

' ' The public sentiment of Kansas is overwhelmingly against the liquor 
traffic. Thousands of men who, a few years ago, opposed prohibition, or 
doubted whether it was the best method of dealing with the liquor traffic, 
have seen and frankly acknowledged its beneficent results and its practical 
success. The temptations with which the open saloon allured the youth of 
the land to disgrace and destruction ; the appetite for liquor, bred and nurt- 
ured within its walls by the treating custom ; the vice, crime, poverty, suf- 
fering, and sorrow of which it is always the fruitful source — all these evil 
results of the open saloon have been abolished in nearly every town and 
city in Kansas. There is not an observing man in the State who does not 
know that a great reform has been accomplished in Kansas by prohibition. 
There is not a truthful man in the State who will not frankly acknowledge 
this fact, no matter what his opinions touching the policy of prohibition 
may have been." 

To the same effect is the record of the other States and hundreds of 
counties and smaller legislative bodies of our land wherein the poisonous 
drink business is outlawed. The only obstacle to entire success is this 
national antagonism. This it is which furnishes the means for the wily 
tempter to beguile, and for the victims, already on the downward road to 
drunkards' graves, to obtain the liquid fire which sends them on, on to the 
fatal ending — this it is which begets the lying and other immoral conduct 
in connection with surreptitiously obtaining this demon of the cup, to which 
these self-misnamed "friends of personal liberty " point their fingers and of 
which they accuse prohibition as being the cause. No ! no ! Not prohibition, 
but the anti-prohibitory National Government, the particeps criminis with 
King Alcohol, must answer the charge for making such immorality possible. 

As to why exportation to other countries should cease, with your per- 
mission, Mr. Chairman, I will make use of the following forcible reason 
given in your great work, "The Temperance Movement: or The Conflict 
between Man and Alcohol " : 

" So far as the exportation to other countries is concerned, while I do 
not say that it could not still be carried on without great evil to our own 
people, aside from the waste of material and the perversion of capital and 
labor from useful purposes, yet to continue to poison mankind at large with 



30 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

what we had prohibited to ourselves would be like peddling off to our neigh- 
bors the contaminated and fatal garments which we might have had left 
after the small-pox or yellow-fever had run through our own family." 

We believe a sufficient number of the people of this National common- 
wealth are asking in their sovereign capacity for the submission of such an 
amendment, to warrant compliance. For many years has this asking been 
going on. The only effect of longer denial will be to send the question to 
the ballot-box, where representatives of the people are made and unmade. 

The adherents of King Alcohol are congratulating themselves on pre- 
venting temperance legislation by Congress. This is seen in the report 
made to the United States Brewers' Association by Louis Schade, Attorney 
for the Association and widely known as its " Congressional manipulator, " 
at the twenty- eighth annual convention, held at St. Paul, the 30th and 31st 
of May, 1888. In this report, if correctly published in The Brewers' 
Journal, Mr. Schade said: 

" During the present year nothing of a legislative character has oc- 
curred at the Capitol in any way injurious to the brewing trade. * * * 
Though Miss Willard and a whole battalion of female Prohibitionists made 
fervent appeals before the Senate District of Columbia Committee, the 
simple reminder from the friends of personal liberty that there was a Pres- 
idental election pending sufficed to induce even the Republican members of 
the committee (with the sole exception of Senator Riddleberger) to vote the 
bill down unanimously. No prohibition will pass this Congress. Indeed, 
I can proudly point to the fact that, with the exception of the school-book 
bill (and we did not fight that), none of the measures of the Prohibitionists 
have thus far passed the national legislature, and in all likelihood will not 
hereafter, provided no mistakes are made on our part. Even high-license 
bills, bell-punch bills, Ohio damage-law bills, and other unjust and illiberal 
measures have, up to date, found no favor with Congress, no matter 
whether the Democrats or Republicans had the controlling influence. The 
reason is very simple. In the first place, the leaders on both sides know 
that prohibition is not a moral and temperance issue. Then they believe 
that Congress has no right to meddle with a question clearly belonging to 
the States. The watchfulness of the friends of personal liberty at the Cap- 
itol may also have had its effect. Their appeals to their friends in the 
States have frequently kept some of the recreant Congressmen at home 
forever. ' ' 

This excerpt not only shows such congratulation as alleged, but also 
that the brewers' attorney proclaims his familiarity with certain knowledge 
and opinions of leading members of Congress. But, it seems to us, he lost 
his base when, talking about temperance legislation attempted for the ben- 
efit of the District of Columbia, a district over which Congress has exclu- 
sive control, he asserted that "they believe that Congress has no right to 
meddle with a question clearly belonging to the States." It may be that 
these leaders believe that "prohibition is not a moral and temperance 
issue" ; but a large part of the people of these United States, whom they 
help to represent, think otherwise. That is, they think that temperance 
and morality are issues, and that prohibition of the traffic in alcoholic bev- 
erages is the means for settling these issues and raising our national life to 
a higher moral and temperance standard. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 31 

I11 conclusion, I would respectfully ask, in the name of the Woman's 
Christian Temperance Union, for that which I believe you already have in 
mind, the return of the Constitutional Prohibition Amendment to the honor- 
able Senate, with your report thereon favoring its submission to the forum 
of the States, to the end that the supreme law of our land shall become the 
death-warrant rather than the charter of life of our greatest national curse 
and the supreme destroyer of "personal liberty." 



VIEWS OF SENATOR BLAIR. 

[Extracts from chapter XVIII., entitled "National Prohibition," of his 
great work, "The Temperance Movement : or The Conflict between Man 
and Alcohol."] 

No prohibitory Jaw now exists, or ever has existed in this country. 
None has existed or does exist, or can exist in any State. No prohibitory 
law has failed to prohibit, for there can be no prohibited law taking juris- 
diction of the liquor traffic unless it controls it from origin to end — from the 
point of its manufacture, or wherever it comes within our borders, and so 
through all the channels of distribution to the stomach of the consumer. 
Now, it is a fact that from the foundation of the National Government until 
to-day, it has not only permitted but has fostered and protected the traffic in 
alcoholic liquors. 

The Constitution, as construed, is for the traffic, and the laws are made 
and enforced in pursuance of the Constitution. * * * 

We speak of the National Government and of the State Government. 
Neither is the Government. Each is a department or branch of the Govern- 
ment, which comprises them both, and by the union of both is itself one. 
The American peo'ple are a unit, a nation, and that people is the great fact 
behind both State and National or general forms, who create both, each with 
separate, generally independent, but sometimes concurrent powers. As the 
people are one people, so the State and the National branches spring not 
either from the other, but from the same root, and are one tree. Both com- 
bined have only the same powers which the English Parliament possesses 
alone. The powers of government being divided between these National 
and State branches, there are some things which each can perform fully 
without the co-operation of the other. There are other things which, from 
their nature, require the action of the Government itself, as a whole, acting 
by and through both State and National forms. The one has general juris- 
diction of local interests, the other of the interests of individuals and of the 
States in their larger relations and with other sovereignties. Yet the rela- 
tion of the individual is direct to each branch of the Government in its 
proper sphere. This peculiarity may be, in some respects, a weakness, but, 
on the whole, although it may diminish velocity, it increases strength, and 
is the very citadel of our liberties. If, then, there be an interest or an evil 



2,2 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

which is everywhere and which exists and is felt by each individual and by 
the people as a whole, in all the States and Territories of the Republic, which 
is, in short, national, that interest or that evil is sure to require the protec- 
tion, regulation or prohibition of the whole power of the people, exerted 
through both the State and National divisions of the one Government. 

Such an interest, if it be an interest, or such an evil, if it be an 
evil, is the liquor traffic. * * * 

The police power is that under which the traffic in intoxicating drink 
must be controlled and prohibited, if at all, and it resides in the States. 
But the States and the people have expressly given to the general Govern- 
ment the right and power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, 
among the several States, and with the Indian tribes. The general Govern- 
ment recognizes and protects alcohol as property and as an article of legiti- 
mate commerce. As long as any State, domestic or foreign, continues to 
permit the manufacture of alcohol and the traffic therein, the general gov- 
ernment stands pledged to exercise all its powers of legislature, judicature 
and execution, to protect and facilitate the continued infliction of the 
curse. 

States may do much to rescue their people, and public sentiment every- 
where may cry out in its extremity, but as long as the Constitution and laws 
of the United States guarantee the safe importation and transportation of 
alcoholic beverages in the original packages through the ports and over the 
avenues of interstate commerce of this country, the extinction or substan- 
tial restraint of the evil is impossible. If the demand did not already exist, 
local laws and public opinion might, perhaps, suffice, but not now, when 
every hamlet, and some inmate of almost every house in the whole land, is 
cursed by unnatural desire. I would not be understood to discourage the 
efforts to secure prohibitory laws, both constitutional and statutory, in the 
states. They are indispensable, and even when these efforts fail, or, the 
laws being enacted, their purpose partially fails, still they constitute the 
nucleus of that agitation which forms public opinion, and lead gradually up 
to that universal public judgment which, sooner or later, will amend the 
Constitution of the country so to prohibit absolutely this baneful traffic 
everywhere by National law. * * * 

Commerce with foreign powers must be regulated by National laws, and 
there are States and Territories of the United States wherein, if left to them- 
selves, the manufacture and trade would exist, it may be, forever ; conse- 
quently, under our complex system of government, it would be impractica- 
ble to remove the causes of alcoholic intemperance without an amendment 
to the National laws. Such an amendment of the National Constitution is 
the proper immediate objective point of all temperance agitation and 
work. * * * 

When the Nation has prohibited the importation, manufacture, trans- 
portation, and sale of intoxicating beverages, and that sort of prohibition 
does not prohibit, it will be ample season to cry out against the efficiency of 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 33 

enactments which seek to extirpate crime from the land by the removal of 
its great exciting cause. * * * 

The Nation knows every distillery, and taxes its product. * * * 
What difficulty, then, could the Nation experience in prohibiting and pre- 
venting, substantially, the creation and transportation of alcohol for any 
but medicinal, scientific and other indispensable uses, if the attempt were 
seriously made ? * * * I have no argument with those, if such there be, 
who are opposed to any legislation against the liquor traffic -with those 
who would either license it or make it wholly free. Such people, to be con- 
sistent, should repeal the whole criminal code and recite the Golden Rule to 
pirates and snakes. If we are to legislate at all upon the subject, why not 
aim to ascertain the real nature and full extent of the evil, and then enact 
laws whose jurisdiction is complete, and whose penalties and prohibitions 
are commensurate to the end ? * * * 

Now there is no national law for the removal of the alcoholic evil. On 
the contrary, we have seen how by guaranteeing the importation and trans- 
portation, and permitting the manufacture, the National Constitution is the 
very citadel of the rum power. * * * 

One thing is certain — that the promoters of the traffic must dread a 
national movement. So long as the Nation is their city of refuge in its ter- 
ritory and its laws, they fear not what man can do unto them. If they are 
persecuted in one place, as were the early Christians, they flee into another, 
and wait for the returning tide, which, like the ever-recurrent pressure of 
the ocean upon Holland, can be excluded only by national dykes. But 
national prohibition would be the end of the traffic. They instinctively 
know it, and everywhere cry out, " Take any form but that." * * * 

Prohibition is never held to extend beyond those uses which are demon- 
strably injurious to society. For all necessary and beneficial purposes pro- 
hibitory laws permit or license the traffic. * * * During the last three 
centuries what is known as ardent spirits with us, and the immense and 
dreadful curses which grow out of their use, have gradually arisen. They 
have the power of perverting the natural instincts and tastes of both body 
and mind, and to recreate man into the slave of perverted appetites, having 
insatiable, consuming, uncontrollable, devilish power. The image of God 
becomes dangerous to society as well as to himself, whether as a maniac or 
as a criminal, and it is this consequence of the use of intoxicating liquors 
which the laws have constantly, but imperfectly, undertaken to control for 
many years ; nothing more. 

The prohibitory amendment to the National Constitution proposes to 
extend over the national domain the protection of a constitutional inhibi- 
tion of the destructive tendencies of liquors when made and used for pur- 
poses which have been proved to be detrimental to society, and which many 
of the States of the Union have endeavored vainly to restrict and destroy. 
Nothing but a general law can be efficient. That has been demonstrated 



34 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

by experience. While one State prohibits, another manufactures and 
encourages. * * * 

Thus it appears, first, that the evil can only be effectually reached by 
national legislation, and second, that such legislation must be of a constitu- 
tional character. * * * 

Intelligence, conscience and common sense are the foundations of sound 
public opinion, and they are the agencies which must be relied upon to 
effect the proposed change in the Constitution of the Nation. It must be 
based upon the intelligent demand of three-fourths of the States in this 
Union. How can that public sentiment be created ? First, there must be 
an intelligent apprehension of the extent of the evil to be remedied, and 
that the Nation as such is concerned in it. Second, there must be a prac- 
tical measure proposed, wise and just and efficient, upon which the efforts 
of the people can be concentrated. * * * That measure must interfere 
as little as possible with the internal affairs of the States, leaving to them 
the enforcement of special laws within their own borders, subject to the 
general constitutional restriction. * * * 

But there is no form in which the appeal can be made but by the sub- 
mission of an amendment from the national legislature to the States at 
large, and why should not the opportunity be given and the result left with 
the people themselves? 

The importation of liquors is now the subject of treaty stipulation with 
France and other countries, but we have the unquestionable right to abro- 
gate these treaties after reasonable notice. * * * 

Granted that individuals will manufacture their own poison, yet they 
must do it in secret and under such difficulties and public reprobation that 
comparatively small injury could result therefrom. * * * It would be 
impossible to conceal the manufacture if carried on to any injurious 
extent. * * * 

Nor can there be any valid objection to this legislation based upon the 
doctrine of State rights, for the Constitution now asserts and exercises the 
power to substantially control or thwart the police power of the Scates by 
rendering nugatory their efforts to regulate and suppress the evil. The 
police powers of the States are thus really nullified or abridged in a most 
important — nay, a matter of vital concern. The deadliest foe of social hap- 
piness and public order is placed under the protection of the National 
Constitution, and the State must subordinate its process to the rights of 
rum, protected by the national power. This amendment proposes to repeal 
those restrictions upon the rights of States to govern themselves, and 
substitute provisions in harmony with the tendencies of enlightened State 
legislation and the interests of society, and thus it proposes to re-inforce the 
police power of the States acting for the public good. This certainly, at 
the worst, is no greater restriction of the powers of the States than now 
exists in the Constitution by virtue of the protection given to the liquor 
interests, against which the States, so many of them, wage war. And it is 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 35 

difficult to see why an advocate of States' rights should be satisfied with the 
Constitution as it is, and then complain when it is proposed to change the 
Constitution so as to give the States still greater power to restrict and con- 
trol an evil over which but for this Constitution the States would have 
absolute power. 

It seems to me that this is a sufficient reply to those who, claiming 
that they desire to suppress the evil, object to an increase of national power 
for that purpose. If the real difficulty is that the objector would relieve 
the liquor traffic of all legal disabilities, whether State or National, then 
this view of States' rights will not be satisfactory. He will then be satis- 
fied with no constitutional amendment which does not destroy all ' ' police 
power," State or National, to interfere with the evils of alcoholic intem- 
perance. " States' rights " is a term too much abused in these latter days, 
and honest men should examine well the motives and pretenses of those 
who appeal to prejudices engendered by controversies which, with their 
causes, have vanished away. We certainly are a nation to such extent that 
a vast evil which contaminates the atmosphere of the continent can be 
assailed with national power, especially when it can be reached successfully 
in no other way, and the method proposed leaves to the States the execu- 
tion of the great work if they will perform it in their own self-chosen way. 

But I would not fail to urge that there be no National action at the 
expense of that which otherwise would be done in the States. The two 
forms of agitation and legislation should go on together, and each as the 
ally of the other, promoting by their joint action the success of both, forti- 
fying and securing their conquests when made. * * * 

The movements of the present time for prohibitory amendments of 
State constitutions and for statutory prohibition and regulation, including 
the system of "local option " efforts, are of great importance, especially as 
the means of temporary restraint, and as the centers of agitation and means 
of creating enlightened public opinion ; but such is the nature and scope of 
the evil, and such are the relations of the general and special or State gov- 
ernments to each other, that nothing but a movement based upon the 
national idea, presents a clear prospect of permanent success. The same 
difficulties arise in all action for the permanent or even temporary suppres- 
sion of the liquor traffic that does not include aggressive co-operation of the 
National Government, as those which ruined the country under the Articles 
of Confederation, and which did not abate until the whole subject of com- 
merce, foreign and between the States, was placed under the control of one 
sovereign power. The combination of local and national effort is indispen- 
sable to the desired end. Neither can prevail without the other ; neither can 
be postponed for the other without harm. Let everybody throw a stone at 
the liquor traffic, each in his own way, when he is so organized that he can 
not or will not use prepared ammunition nor shoot with the regulation gun. 

But still the fact will remain that to ignore or delay the movement for 
a prohibitory amendment of the National Constitution, so that it may be 



36 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

reserved to be a Yorktown rather than a Bunker Hill — that is to say, a 
crowning rather than a preliminary battle — is to decide to fight as a mass of 
individuals, or an isolation of States, rather than as a trained army with a 
general plan of campaign, and a national concentration of organized power 
for the destruction of an organized national curse. 



VIEWS OF OTHER LEADING PROHIBITIONISTS. 

[Extracts from their writings or speeches.] 

Frances B. Willard, President World's and National W. C. 
T. U. — National Prohibition by a Constitutional Amendment ratified in the 
State Legislatures, is our only adequate remedy. Anything less, because 
restricted in its operations, must also be incomplete in its results. The 
smuggling curse along a National border is the only adequate illustration 
of the inadequacy of prohibition by States. Nothing can stop it but to 
bound the area over which Prohibition spreads its beneficent sway by the 
cold water of the two great oceans, and by their beneficent surroundings to 
salt down forever and a day this most wholesome legislation yet conceived 
by the human intellect. 

Again, a moment's reflection shows that nothing less than National 
prohibition can rid us of those outrageous weakeners, the interstate com- 
merce law that introduces intoxicants in " sealed packages " that are most 
readily unsealed, and those unjust and illogical provisions of the internal 
revenue law that permit the National Government to sell a license inside a 
prohibition State. 

Furthermore, through the enactment of National prohibition we are 
sure of a " fair count," because in State and National legislatures each man 
must answer to his own name, and openly vote what he is willing to have 
go on record. We believe that Ohio, Michigan, and very likely several 
other States, were lost to us through a false count, and we very naturally 
seek channels through which we are certain of a true one. 

Finally, we believe, as the result of hard-earned experience, that our 
sacred cause has more to hope for from the higher intelligence of legisla- 
tures than it has proved likely to receive from the masses of uneducated 
and alien voters to whose tender mercies State prohibition must be consigned 
on voting day, with political wire-pullers working against it at every cross- 
roads. Therefore, while willing and glad to work for prohibition in any 
form, be it Sunday closing, week-day closing, or what not (so that it is 
always a " thou shalt not " to the saloon), the Woman's Christian Temper- 
ance Union is first, last and always, for Senator Blair's Prohibitory Amend- 
ment to the National Constitution. 



Samuel Dickie, Chairman National Prohibition Committee.— 
While I believe in State prohibition, I look upon it simply as local op- 
tion on a somewhat larger scale, and am convinced that this great battle in 
which you and I are now engaged will never be fought out to a successful 
conclusion until from the National Capitol an edict shall go forth that no- 
where in our broad domain may men put the bottle to their neighbor's lips. 



K 



General Clinton B. Fisk. — Agitation on this question is the duty of 
the hour. Let it go on from press, platform and pulpit, in the prayer 
meetings and at the ballot-box, until every patriot who loves his country, 
every Christian who loves his God, every philanthropist who loves his 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 37 

race, every father who loves his child, every son of the Republic will, a 
marshaled host, uplift the Constitution as a banner of reform, and under its 
folds march to the ballot-boxes of the land, and under an avalanche of free- 
men's ballots bury beyond resurrection the American saloon. Then shall 
our whole Union become the citadel of sobriety, the national name be 
purged of this great shame, and our glorious banner, 

1 ' Whose hues are all of heaven — 
Its red the sunset's dye, 
The whiteness of the moon-lit cloud, 
The blue of morning sky," 

shall be the flag of hope for all mankind as it floats over our sober, free, 
and happy people. 

W. Jennings Demorest. — As the case stands to-day, our government 
is a centralized legal drunkard manufactory, sanctioning the crime and pro- 
tecting the criminal in his murderous policy of poisoning the people for a 
money consideration paid in advance. What wonder that crime and anarchy 
pervade the whole community when such demoralizing, dehumanizing 
practices become the standards of public morality. 

As prohibition is the foundation of all law and justice, so prohibition 
necessarily represents all the phases of equity between individuals and the 
State. Prohibition, therefore, includes both liberty and coercion. Prohibi- 
tion and liberty are co-equal, and both together are the foundation and 
security of our modern civilization. Prohibition, therefore, has no virtue 
without liberty ; liberty is dependent on prohibition, and the virtue of poli- 
tics is dependent on both. 

The prohibition of the liquor traffic through purified politics will be the 
culmination of one of the most important developments of morals ever in- 
augurated in the history of the world ; and when prohibition is achieved in 
State and Nation, its transcendent importance will be apparent in the de- 
velopment of a higher and purer civilization. 



T. De Witt Tai^mage, D. D. — First of all, we want an amendment to 
the Constitution of the United States ratified by three-fourths of the States 
— an amendment prohibiting the manufacture and the sale of alcoholic 
liquors in all the States and Territories, except for medicinal, artistic, me- 
chanical, and scientific purposes, and a prohibition of the importation of 
foreign alcoholic liquors except for the same purposes. 

The mere prohibition of the manufacture and the sale of intoxicating 
liquors in a State, perhaps, may only drive that intoxication and that alco- 
holic liquor into another State ; but let us have National prohibition, and 
then one-half the iniquity tumbles off into the Atlantic Ocean and the other 
half of the iniquity tumbles off into the Pacific Ocean — drowned in two 
oceans of cold water. 

We want a National movement, so that the stronger States in the matter 
can help the weaker States, and so that the country districts can help the 
dissipated cities. We want a National movement. 

Good citizens of America, I do not know how you feel, but I confess that 
I am tired of paying taxes to fix up the work of these infernal grog-shops 
that are tossing tens of thousands of people into crime and suffering. Out 
with them from Brooklyn ! Out with them from the United States ! I have 



38 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide: 

proclaimed and now proclaim war for trie rest of my life against that abomi- 
nation. Let us have State prohibition, and National prohibition ! 

The work can be done, and it will be done ; but it will not be done until 
the whole nation wakes up. State prohibition will not accomplish it. It 
must be National prohibition. 



Daniel Dorchester, D. D.— Other giant evils exist, for which we 
can not ask for prohibition by the Constitution. Other principles are of 
great practical utility to society, for which we would not think of" asking a 
place in the organic law. Other forms of legislation are in harmony with 
the highest jurisprudence, but hardly entitled to embodiment in the Consti- 
tution. Other principles may be in accord with sound political economy ; 
others vindicated by the best medical science ; and others still may be jus- 
tified and demanded on the ground of philanthropy, none of which, how- 
ever, can successfully compete for a place in the Constitution. 

But a single form of legislation, like prohibition, which combines all 
these six great advantages ; which includes in its beneficent sweep the sup- 
pression of the most gigantic evil of the land ; which has already demon- 
strated its superior practical efficiency in this work ; which has never failed 
to be vindicated as just and equitable by the highest courts of law ; which 
has been demonstrated to be in accord with the soundest political economy ; 
which has an impregnable logical basis in the teachings of the, most ad- 
vanced medical science ; which is fully in consonance with the purest phi- 
lanthropy and its efficient handmaid — indorsements representing the highest 
pinnacle of modern thought, in the most vital relations of civil, scientific, 
and social life — certainly can not long be denied a place in the Constitution 
of the State or of the Nation. 

The Constitution is the place in which to embody the most essential 
principles pertaining to the welfare of society. It is a summary of the most 
vital truths, a covenant of mutual obligations, touching the great interests 
of government. * * * In a constitutional prohibition of the liquor traffic 
we have an established standard of right principles exerting its instructive 
influence upon public sentiment, a beacon of essential truth before our 
children, illuminating and guiding public thought. There may be fluctua- 
tions and recessions in the temperance progress, but the high ideal will 
still remain to lift men higher in each returning flow of the great tide. 
The advancing civilization of the century is becoming thoroughly and irre- 
versibly out of joint with drink shops, and can not long dally with these 
pest-houses of evil. The eye of the age is fixing its gaze upon constitutional 
prohibition as the goal toward which society is advancing. We shall not 
reach it at once, but it is the objective point toward which we will struggle. 



INDORSEMENTS OE TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 

National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (Chicago 
Convention, 1877).— Resolved, That the prohibition of the importation, 
manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquor is demanded by the spirit of our 
Christian civilization, and is the true legislative remedy for the evils of in- 
temperance. 

National Temperance Society (Chicago Convention, 1875). — Re- 
solved, That the time has arrived more fully to consider the relations of 
the National Government to, and its responsibility for, the alcoholic liquor 
traffic ; that we hereby ask the Forty-fourth Congress to initiate * * * 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 39 

and adopt for ratification by the several States of the Union a constitutional 
amendment which shall make the traffic in alcoholic beverages illegal 
throughout our national domain. 

Right Worthy Grand Lodge, I. O. G. T. (Richmond Convention, 
1SS61. — The end for which we aim is to secure the highest, the strongest, and 
the most permanent prohibition that can possibly be had. 

In the States of the American Union, this is realized in State and 
National Constitutional Prohibition, secured by amendments to the consti- 
tutions of the States prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating 
liquors, and an amendment to the Constitution of the United States prohibit- 
ing the importation, the manufacture and the sale of such liquors through- 
out the entire Nation ; the amendments in all the States and in the Nation to 
be supplemented by legislative enactments to give them force and effect, to be 
followed by the election of officers who will see to it that these prohibitory 
enactments are thoroughly enforced. 

National Division of Sons of Temperance of North America. — 
Resolved, That in our opinion the most important legal action to be 
secured, in order to suppress the sale of intoxicating beverages, is to be found 
in the enactment of prohibitory amendments of the several States and of 
the United States. 

Supreme Council of Templars of Honor and Temperance 
(After rejoicing over the adoption of Constitutional Prohibition in Rhode 
Island). — Resolved, That we hail this victory as only another indication of 
the advance in public sentiment, which we hope will, before many years, 
place our entire land under the banner of National Constitutional Prohibi- 
tion. 

Supreme Council of Royal Templars of Temperance (Buffalo 
Convention, 1889). — Resolved, That the complete suppression of the drink 
traffic is the objective point of all our labors, and we will be satisfied with 
nothing less. 

INDORSEMENTS OF RELIGIOUS BODIES. 

General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of 
North America (Hamilton, O., 18&6).— Resolved, That we unhesitat- 
ingly declare ourselves for the prohibition of the liquor traffic, both State 
and National, and will labor by our counsels, our prayers and our votes, 
as God gives us to see the right, for its speedy accomplishment. 

General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of 
The North (New York, 18SS).— Resolved, That we call for the aid of 
State and National Constitutional Amendments for the suppression of the 
manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages — confident that a very consid- 
erable and respectable portion of American citizens desire to take their 
cause against the saloon for adjudication before the great tribunal of the 
sovereign people, whose prerogative it is, in a country like ours, to decide 
fundamental issues in the last resort. 

General Association of Congregational Churches of South- 
ern California iLos Angeles, 1888 J.— Resolved, As the sentiment of 
this Association, representing the Congregational ministers and churches 
of Southern California, that we favor the absolute prohibition of the manu- 
facture and sale of alcoholic beverages, and we urge upon all persons con- 



4<d Natioyial Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

nected with our churches to use their influence and their vote definitely for 
the suppression of the saloon, and the accomplishment of local and national 
prohibition. 

New Hampshire M. E. Conference (Tilton, 1888).— Believing that 
high-license is not a temperance measure, does not diminish drunkenness, 
and makes the Government a partner in destroying public virtue, we are 
determined to make no compromise, and to press the battle until National 
Constitutional Prohibition is an accomplished fact. 

Nebraska Presbyterian Synod (Madison, 1888).— We have no 
faith in compromise, no faith in license, high or low. In the name of God 
and humanity we demand that the saloon be made an outlaw in the State 
and in the Nation. We want no fellowship with the "unfruitful works of 
darkness." We want no blood money to pay our taxes and to educate our 
children. We want no legal enactment to protect this national nuisance 
from the vengeance of an outraged people. 

Annual Conference of the M. E. Church of Kansas (1888). — 
Resolved in favor of " the early submission of an amendment to the Con- 
stitution of the United States prohibiting the importation or sale of intoxi- 
cating liquors, except for medicinal, mechanical or scientific purposes." 

Janesville (Wis.) District Association of M. E. Churches 
(Sharon, 1888). — Resolved in favor of National Constitutional Prohibition. 

New Hampshire Christian Association (Dover, 1888). — Resolved, 
That State and National Prohibition is the only permanent solution of the 
temperance question. 

General Conference of the African M. E. Zion Church 
(New Berne, N. C, 1888). — Resolved, That we favor every means that can be 
brought to bear for the destruction of the traffic in all intoxicants as a 
beverage in State and Nation. 

General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church 
(Kansas City, 1889). — Resolved, That nothing short of constitutional and 
statutory prohibition of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors as 
beverages, by the United States and the several States, will be satisfactory, 
and to this end we will pray and work. 

Wyoming M. E. Conference (Pittston, Pa., 1889).— Resolved, That 
in our judgment the one and only goal of the temperance reform is Consti- 
tutional prohibition. State and National; and as an aid in reaching this 
goal we dedicate ourselves, voice, vote and example. 

Southern Baptists (Memphis, 1889).— Resolved, By the Southern 
Baptists, in convention assembled, that we favor the speedy and entire pro- 
hibition of the liquor traffic ; that we oppose license for this traffic in any 
and all of its forms, through which men buy the right to destroy human 
hope and happiness and blight human souls, as an offense against public 
morals and a sin against God. 

Baptist State Convention of Florida (Ocala, 1889).— Resolved^ 
That we reaffirm with increased emphasis our position in the past years 
against the manufacture, sale and use of spirituous, malt and vinous liquors 
as a beverage, as a sin against God and one of the greatest evils of our times; 
that we rejoice in the progress of such principles as have secured to us the 
advance made along this line, and pledge ourselves to an earnest and con- 
tinuous opposition to this abomination of desolation, always favoring all 
possible legal restriction but lending no countenance to the pernicious 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 41 

license system, until we shall be permitted in the good providence of God 
to enjoy absolute and universal prohibition of this infamous evil. 

St. John's River Conference of the M. E. Church of Florida 
(Eustis, 1S89). — Resolved, That the true principle of our Republican form 
of government is to seek the welfare of the people above everything, else, 
and that any form of license, either high or low, is subversive of the best 
interests of the people, and therefore wrong. That we believe the only 
effective remedy against the evil of intemperance is in its total prohibition, 
and can be effectively secured only by State and National prohibition. 

Missouri Sunday School Convention of Christian Church 
(Carrollton, 1889).— Resolved, That Constitutional Prohibition, both State 
and National, is the only successful way of dealing with the liquor traffic. 



INDORSEMENTS OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 

National Prohibition Party (Indianapolis Convention, 1888). — 
Declared, That the manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation, 
and sale of alcoholic beverages should be made public crimes and prohibited 
as such. That such prohibition must be secured through amendments to 
our National and State constitutions, enforced by adequate laws adequately 
supported by administrative authority. 

The Prohibition Party in the Several States has ratified the 
above declaration of the National Prohibition party ; and also, by independ- 
ent resolutions, has declared in favor of National Constitutional prohibi- 
tion. 

South Dakota Republican Party (1889 Convention) .—Declared, 
Recognizing the pernicious influences of the traffic in intoxicating liquors 
upon every interest of our commonwealth, we favor National and State 
prohibition of such traffic, and the adoption of the article of our Constitu- 
tion relating thereto, and the enactment and enforcement of such laws as 
will make the same effective. 



INDORSEMENTS OF RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS. 

[Extracts from editorials indorsing National Prohibition in general and 
the Senate Report on the Amendment in particular.] 

Christian Nation (New York — Unsectarian). — We heartily indorse 
and approve the joint resolution which has been presented to the Senate with 
a favorable report thereon for the submission to the States of this great 
moral question. If nothing more could be accomplished by such a vote, it 
would afford all temperance people the immense encouragement of a defi- 
nite knowledge of the number of voters there are who want the saloon 
destroyed. 

The Baltimore Methodist (M. E.).— The drunken carousal called 
a ball, with which the great Centennial celebration ended in New York is 
an insult to the memory of Washington which will not be wiped out until 
we have National prohibition. 

The Christian Citizen (Topeka, Kansas— Unsectarian). — The agi- 
tation for a National prohibitory law will help to put into Congress men 



42 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

who are opposed to the traffic, while it will educate the public conscience in 
the right direction. Let the good work go on until the National Govern- 
ment shall be divorced from its alliance with the rum-seller. 

The Central Methodist (Organ of the M. E. Church South). — 
The measure proposed is the only key to the solution of the greatest ques- 
tion now confronting the American people. Let the Christian people of all 
sections petition their representatives in Congress to allow the several 
States to pass upon this measure. 

Illustrated Christian Weekly (New York — Evangelical). — It would 
seem wise that the action recommended by the Committee should be taken 
by Congress. 

The Mid-Continent (St. Louis— Presbyterian). — We are in perfect 
sympathy with the end in view, and with the method proposed. It will 
have to come sooner or later, and the sooner the better. If we could only 
insert the words and drinking after the word sale in the resolution, it would 
look like the conclusion of the whole matter. 

The Helper (Harrisburg — M. E.). — It adds to the many evidences 
already presented that the prohibition question is a national issue, and that 
it is destined at no very distant day to become international. 

The Gospel Herald (Princeton, N. J. — Undenominational). — We 
favor the submission to the States of the amendment recommended by the 
report, and will support it. 

The Record and Messenger (Brooklyn — Primitive Methodist). — 
The liquor question can be correctly settled in no other wa}' than through 
such an amendment as is here proposed. Local option, high-license, nor 
State prohibition meets this national evil. The prohibition of this " gigan- 
tic crime of crimes " must be put into the Federal Constitution and rigidly 
enforced by all needed legislation as well as public sentiment, ere this ques- 
tion is effectually settled. At any rate, in response to the demand of ten 
millions of the most thoughtful, sober, patriotic, intelligent and Christian 
people of this land, the question should at least be submitted to the people 
of the several States for settlement, and at as early a date as possible. 

The Pioneer (Baltimore — Evangelical), — The Pioneer not only 
clamors for the opportunity, but trusts that the opportunity, if offered, will 
be embraced, to pass the amendment. 

Weekly Itinerant — (Harrisburg— U. B.). — We most heartily indorse 
the committee's report, believing that the millions of people in the United 
States who are in favor of the abolition of the liquor traffic ought to unite 
their voices in demanding the submission 'of the National Prohibitory 
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. 

Western Methodist Protestant (Cameron, Texas — M. E.) — We are : 
for it. 

The Golden Censer (Rockford, 111. — Unsectarian). — To refuse to 
allow the States so to record their wills would be contrary to our national 
spirit. The only question is one of the people's wanting such a chance to 
speak, and this is abundantly proven by the great masses of petitions sent 
up and the expressions of the press, which have been very general. 

The Signs of the Times (Organ of the International Tract and 
Missionary Society). — We believe firmly in National Constitutional Prohi- 
bition. The standard arguments used against it have really no weight ; and 
we can see no good reason why every State should not adopt it. 



Natio7ial Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 43 

The Florida Baptist Witness. — The submission of this resolution to 
the States, to become valid as a part of the National Constitution when 
ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, as provided 
in the Constitution, is recommended by the committee, and is therefore a 
bill in proper shape for the consideration of Congress. Parenthetically we 
remark that this fact makes it very important for us to see that those who 
are now offering themselves as candidates for election to Congress tell us 
plainly how they expect to vote upon this important measure. A promise 
or pledge from a good man will do no harm ; a promise or pledge is some- 
times absolutely necessary to furnish stamina for bad men. 

California Christian Advocate (San Francisco — M. E.) — The read- 
ers of this paper know that it has strongly deprecated the national in- 
terference in protecting the liquor traffic from the just consequences of its 
innumerable crimes. The regulation of commerce carries with it the pro- 
tection of common carriers against the prohibitory statutes of Maine and 
Iowa and Kansas, so that they can carry liquor into these States in original 
packages, notwithstanding the opposition of State laws. This fact, and the 
application of this principle to actual cases, have made thousands of men 
•desire to see a constitutional amendment adopted that would forever free 
the National Government from the dangerous power now given it —to pro- 
tect in any way a traffic that is more infamous and cruel than the slave 
trade. We shrink with a natural, constitutional, inborn repugnance from 
tinkering with the Constitution, but we do not know that there is any possi- 
ble way out of the difficulty presented by the Senate Committee except to 
adopt this amendment. Yet it is only prudent and just for all parties to 
recognize the great obstacles before us in attempting to carry this act. It 
must be passed by a two-thirds majority of the Senate and House, and then 
by three-fourths of the several States. It has against it the colossal forces 
of the liquor traffic compactly arrayed in politics, all on one side, and des- 
perate, unscrupulous and exceedingly cunning in the management of its 
wicked canvass. It will require the utmost courage, skill, patience, liber- 
ality and devotion, to make this effort a success, but it is a matter of infinite 
moment to free our National Government from any complicity, immediate 
or remote, with a traffic so heavily laden with sin, sorrow and ruin. 

This is the next reform, and the greatest of all political reforms. 

The Saints 1 Herald iXamoni, Iowa — Latter Day Saints). — The 
agitation has been going on in almost all parts of the country ; public at- 
tention has been directed to the liquor traffic and what it was costing the 
Nation in moral and social destruction, until there is none so hardy as to 
seriously deny the terrible indictment under which alcoholic poison has 
been placed ; and now it is high time that public opinion wrought by so 
much and so long-continued labor of " moral suasion," should become crys- 
tallized into law, and the community, State and Nation, be relieved of the 
huge burden of desolation, destruction and death which has been imposed 
upon it by perverted human appetite. The question how shall this crystalli- 
zation of public opinion into law be accomplished, is pressing upon the 
people for answer. Shall it be by legislative enactment in the State General 
Assemblies ; by amendment to State constitutions ; by Congressional legis- 
lation, or by amendment to the Constitution of the United States ? 

Already in several of the States legislative prohibition is had, and is 
accomplishing much. It is argued, however, and with some show of pro- 
priety, that if prohibitive legislation does so much, Congressional enact- 
ments would do more ; but that the sweeping stroke of propriety, policy 
and self-protection against the evil would be dealt by the concurrence of all 



44 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

the States in an amendment to the Constitution, thus dealing with the ques- 
tions of the evil and its remedy as a Nation, and putting it out of the power 
of smaller and isolated portions of the common realm to force larger and 
more conservative parts to carry the burden entailed upon them by bad 
neighbors. L,et the amendment be submitted to the legislatures of the 
various States for an action of the people and let the bright, broad-axe of 
beneficent reform fall upon the evil of drink to its utter extirpation. What 
a revolution that will be ! 

The Gospel Messenger (Mount Morris, 111.). — It is not too much 
to hope that the day will come when 'this amendment will become a 
part of our Constitution, and when that day does come, it will bring free- 
dom to a larger number of slaves than resulted from Lincoln's Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation. May the day speedily come when this desirable end 
may be reached. • 

The Baptist Leader (Montgomery, Ala.). — That Congress should 
propose an amendment to the National Constitution to prohibit the manu- 
facture and sale of. whisky, as a beverage which is undermining our Govern- 
ment, there can be no doubt. In order to make good citizens we must take 
away that which makes bad. And since nine-tenths of all the crimes in this 
country are traceable to intoxication, then the only remedy is the removal 
of the cause. The Government has no more right to sell my father that 
which makes him a bad man than it has to license one to steal my goods. 

The Religious Telescope (Dayton, O. — U. B.). — These are mighty 
words in the mightiest chamber of legislation on the globe. They portend 
great things in the future. They will never be fully silenced in that great 
Senate chamber. The voice of crying humanity and of God are abroad in 
the atmosphere. Shall rum rule our Nation, and our people be despoiled of 
the right to protect themselves against the raging murder of all that is pure 
and holy, or shall we put down the accursed thing ? Shall ' ' the chief curse 
of the world be summoned to the block of national justice and die by the 
hand of the only power which can wield an axe big and sharp enough to 
cut off its hydra head?" The problem is one the answer to which is life 
or death. To play with the monster is to be caught in the powers of death 
and hell. To stamp this demon of strong drink under foot and make its 
promotion a .crime is to close the broadest gate to ruin, defend mankind 
against its mightiest foe, and rob every evil passion and crime of its might- 
iest instigation. It becomes every Christian man and woman to think much 
on these things. National prohibition is the ultimate end to ^which all 
efforts tend. The Government can drive this nefarious business into prison 
in a few short years if it will. When the people awake and utter the com- 
mand it will be done. 

The Church Advocate (Harrisburg— Church of God).— That State 
prohibitory amendments and legislation can be only partially successful has 
been the opinion of observing men for quite a time. And more recent 
developments have made this fact clear to many who had formerly thought 
otherwise. The experience of local option counties has clearly proved that 
so long as the importation laws remain as they now are, and with which 
States can not interfere, prohibition will be seriously interfered with. So 
on a larger scale has the recent decision of an Iowa court interfered with 
the execution of the prohibitory law of that State. Hence, National legis- 
lation, based upon an amendment of the Constitution, is necessary to test 
to the fullest, and under the most favorable conditions, the virtue of pro- 
hibitory legislation. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. . 45 

Christian Worker (Chicago— Friends).— Laws have their influence 
and power largely in proportion to the dignity and strength of the body 
which enacts them. The laws of the United States command more consid- 
eration than State laws ; and State laws, more than municipal. The pow- 
erful and wealthy establishments and combinations in the liquor business 
feel comparatively safe in their trade while we talk only of local prohibi- 
tion. They are so strongly intrenched that they expect to escape in some 
way the penalties of municipal laws, even when such laws are enacted. 
They are rather indifferent to "local option," quite satisfied if we go no 
farther than that. 

But let there be talk of State prohibition, then they are thoroughly 
aroused. They know that however much they may evade and defy munici- 
pal law, they will find it very different to face the authority of the State ; 
and results show that, except in their strongholds generally found on the 
border of States where the traffic is permitted, prohibition is effectual. 

But even State prohibition, were it enacted in New York, Ohio and Illi- 
nois, would have an almost hopeless task to drive the saloon from the cities 
of New York, Cincinnati and Chicago. To make the work effectual a still 
stronger hand is needed — National prohibition. If we can once get a pro- 
hibitory article in the National Constitution then the end of the liquor traffic 
is near. The enemy that has defied subordinate authority will be without 
hope when he can find no spot in all our great domain where he can carry 
his goods to market, and where to lift his finger to ply his trade is to defy 
the authority of the strongest government upon earth. The liquor traffic, 
in either of the cities named, may be too much for a State, but it is as 
nothing when the Nation says, Depart ! 

Is there hope that we shall ever have such an amendment to the National 
Constitution ? Yes, greater hope than there was thirty years ago that we 
should have National abolition of slavery. 

To this end let us pray and labor. 



INDORSEMENTS OF SECULAR NEWSPAPERS. 

[Extracts from editorials indorsing the Senate Committee's recommen- 
dation to submit the National Prohibitory Amendment.] 

The Union Signal (Organ of the World's and National \V. C. T. U.). — 
However strong, theoretically, seem arguments in favor of securing the 
abolition of the liquor traffic through State action alone, experience proves 
their weakness. The thing can not be done. The evil is a national evil, 
the sin of perpetuating it is a national sin ; God deals with nations as na- 
tions, and accepts no action of isolated members as expiation for the 
nation's sin. The strongest power of the liquor traffic lies in its connection 
with the National Government ; through its internal revenue the Federal 
Government is a partner in every distillery in the land ; while it furnishes 
none of the capital, it takes the lion's share of the profit in payment for its 
protection, without which the traffic could not exist. No State is thus im- 
plicated. Accepting thus this partnership in the nefarious business, the 
Nation must be held responsible for the results of this traffic, and her con- 
nection with it must be severed before the traffic can be abolished. Every 
defeat of constitutional amendments in the States deepens our conviction 
that National prohibition is the most direct road to State prohibition. 

The difficulty of enforcing prohibition in isolated States is another 
strong argument for National prohibition. That Kansas and Iowa, sur- 



46 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

rounded as they are by license States, open to the importation of liquor in 
" original packages " by force of Federal decision, and frequently having all 
the power of Federal office-holders within their limits exerted to nullify pro- 
hibition, succeed as well as they do in its enforcement, is a wonder. If 
our enemies did but know it, every claim they make that prohibition does 
not prohibit, that liquor can be obtained in Prohibition States, is an argument 
for National prohibition. Single States can not be expected to absolutely 
enforce any State law in face of the combined opposition of neighboring 
States, the liquor traffic and the National Government. Bring the National 
Government to their aid, and that would bring the neighboring States into 
harmony with their action, and these combined forces would make short 
work of annihilating the enemy. The National Government, with its ally, 
high-license, whether in the form of internal revenue or municipal taxation, 
is the great bulwark which protects the destroyer of the home from the 
wrath of the people. 

Again, a campaign for National prohibition is demanded to stop the 
slaughter of our forces in detatchments. It is poor generalship which per- 
sists in opposing a single battalion to the whole force of the enemy ; yet 
this is exactly what is being done in campaigns for State prohibition. Again 
and again, and again, has the State battalion been marched up to confront 
the whole power of the liquor traffic and to be slaughtered. That power was 
massed against Massachusetts till she was defeated ; the victorious army, 
intact and exultant, was in the best of trim to attack and vanquish Pennsyl- 
vania, then after two days' rest mass its legions on little Rhoda, then turn to 
Dakota. Will we never learn wisdom by the things we suffer? Let us stop 
this useless slaughter of the innocents by dropping a plan of campaign which 
would be considered idiotic in any other warfare, and bring to bear upon 
this awful problem consecrated common sense. 

The National Temperance Advocate (Organ of the National Temper- 
ance Society). — A fundamental measure so comprehensive and radical, it is 
not expected can be carried in a day. But it has now secured a place in the 
Congress of the United States, which, we venture to predict, it will continue 
to hold until it shall, sooner or later, pass that body, and be submitted to 
the States for their ratification. It is the high-water mark of the temperance 
agitation, and it is occasion for profound rejoicing that thus early it has won 
a favorable report from a Committee of the United States Senate. The 
principle is thus recognized and has secured high official indorsement. It 
remains now to obtain the indorsement of the Senate, and of Congress as a 
whole, and then a ratification by the legislatures of three-fourths of the 
several States. 

In every Congressional District, in every State in the Union, approval of 
the proposed National prohibitory constitutional amendment should now 
and henceforth be made by the opponents of the liquor traffic everywhere, 
and of all political parties, a test of fitness in the nomination and support of 
candidates for Congress. It may, and should be, treated in every Congres- 
sional District as a non-partisan measure. All opponents of the drink 
traffic, Democrats, Republicans, and party and non-partisan Prohibitionists, 
should stand shoulder to shoulder in support of candidates avowedly in 
favor of this National prohibitory amendment. United States Senators also 
should be selected with reference to their friendliness to this fundamentally 
important measure. 

A successful National prohibitory constitutional amendment campaign, 
of course, means agitation and education concerning the injurious nature 
and effects of alcoholic beverages and the inseparable evils of the liquor 
traffic in every State and in every county and township throughout the land. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 47 

To a large extent the brewers, distillers, and liquor-sellers are now domi- 
nant, though their wonted political grip is rapidly loosening in many lo- 
calities in many States. All the more timely and important now will be 
the campaign for National constitutional prohibition, inaugurated by the 
action of the Senate Committee, because of the suddenly developed, wide- 
spread, so-called " free whisky " agitation. Free whisky, without prohi- 
bition, is a public peril. National constitutional prohibition, and No- 
whisky, should henceforth be, irrespective of party, the rallying cry of the 
opponents of the liquor traffic throughout the land. 

The Voice (New York). — It is always comparatively easy for a Pro- 
hibition State to suppress the breweries and distilleries within its borders. 
The difficulty is not there. Gen. Neal Dow says in Maine the Prohibition- 
ists have no difficulty in suppressing the manufacture of liquor. Their 
difficulty has been, and is, to prevent the shipment of liquor into the State. 
They can not prevent this shipment under the interstate commerce law, 
and when the liquor is once in the State it is impossible to prevent its sale, 
except by "a spying system" that is distasteful and un-American, and 
which tends to bring all Local Option laws, whether town, county or State, 
into disfavor. And now even ' ' this spying system ' ' will be utterly ineffect- 
ual under the late Supreme Court decision which permits sales in unbroken 
packages in Prohibition localities, a decision hurriedly taken advantage of 
by liquor dealers everywhere. 

There is one way of overcoming the difficulty, and only one. County 
and State prohibition are certainly doomed unless we can supplement it in 
some way that will get around the difficulty which arises through interstate 
commerce. Dr. Lyman Abbott says National prohibition is un-American. 
Common sense is American, and it is common sense to prevent, in the only 
way that it can be prevented, four-fifths of our crime, half of our idiocy 
and lunacy, and nine-tenths of our pauperism. The American Govern- 
ment exists for the people, not the people for it. Whatever a majority of 
the American people favor is American. 

There are two things to be done to suppress the liquor traffic. Cut off 
manufacture and cut off importation. Let it be remembered that it is the 
suppression for beverage uses that we aim at. Whatever alcoholic liquors 
may be needed for scientific or other legitimate purposes can be provided 
for. 

The United States Government has to-day in every brewery and distil- 
lery in the land an officer of the law. Not a gallon of whisky or of beer 
can be distilled or brewed except with the consent of this officer. Now 
let the attack be national. Let the United States Government say no 
alcoholic liquors shall be made, and every brewery and distillery in the 
land could be closed, and this without the creation of any new machinery ; 
could be done with the machinery already in operation — a machinery that, 
under the internal revenue laws, has effectually suppressed the illegal man- 
ufacture of whisky and beei* 

But how about importation ? This is the only other door that is open. 
Here also the machinery is ready and in perfect working order for the 
effectual accomplishment of the work. The United States is surrounded 
with a net-work of Custom Houses. At the Custom House every box can 
be opened and examined, and every trunk, and even the man's person 
searched. There is no interstate commerce law to say you nay ; and the 
smuggler's trade is a thing of the past. Scarcely a gallon of liquor could 
be imported against the will of the government. An amendment to the 
Federal Constitution covers the entire ground. The Government has the 
machinery made to hand to suppress absolutely the importation. And it 



48 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

has the machinery already to hand for the suppression of the manufacture 
of liquor. If liquor is not made, and if it is not imported, then that ends 
it. You need not lay siege to 200,000 saloons. There need be no spy 
system more than that which we have to-day, and which the people endure 
without a murmur — the spy system which prevents the manufacture of 
''crooked" whisky and beer, and which prevents smuggling. The only 
change would be that all alcoholic liquors would be "crooked," and to 
bring any of them into our ports would be smuggling. If it be made ille- 
gal to make or import liquor, we shall not need to trouble ourselves about 
what people drink or sell. In that way we would lay siege only at the 
distillery, the brewery, and the Custom House. It would immensely 
simplify our problem. We shall never have effective or satisfactory pro- 
hibition except on the National scale. 

Is it not practicable ? is it not statesmanship ? 

Minneapolis Daily Journal (Ind.-Rep.). — The Senate Committee on 
Education has reported favorably the proposition to submit to the people of 
the various States a constitutional amendment to prohibit the liquor traffic 
in the United States. Certainly. Why not ? What is 'to be said against 
submission ? Why should not the people be allowed to vote on the ques- 
tion ? Let the report of the committee be adopted and the amendment 
submitted. 

Washington (D. C.) Daily Post (Ind.). — We can not see why there 
should be any serious objection to the submission of an amendment when- 
ever a large number of respectable citizens call on Congress for such action. 
The framers of the Constitution took ample precautions against hasty 
changes in that instrument. The requirement that three-fourths of the 
States must concur in any proposed amendment in order to make it a part 
of the fundamental law, is a sufficient guarantee against dangerous innova- 
tions. No other constitutional government on the globe possesses more 
conservative features than ours. The easiest and best way to stop the 
clamor for National prohibition is to let the Blair amendment go to the 
States. 

Bethlehem (Pa.) Daily Times. — We hope to see the adoption by Con- 
gress of the joint resolution. Whether the people want prohibition or not, 
can then be decided fairly and squarely. Let the people have a chance to 
vote upon this question, and let us stand by their verdict. 

Beaver Falls (Pa. ) Daily Tribune (Rep.). — We are ready to indorse, 
and we do indorse, the Senate Committee's report. We are uncondition- 
ally in favor of submitting to a vote of the people every measure of public 
policy that involves the prosperity and happiness of the Nation. 

Washington (D. C.) Daily Critic (Ind.). — As we have said before, and 
continue to believe, there is no just reason why the question should not be 
put to the people in the manner proposed. The experiment is well worth 
trying for various reasons, both moral and political. If it were possible to 
secure concerted State action, such a test would be quite as satisfactory, but 
there is no way in which the public sentiment of the country with regard 
to the liquor traffic can be so speedily and satisfactorily obtained as by 
making one National election of it. 

Memphis (Tenn.) Daily Appeal (Dem.). — The Appeal indorses the 
recommendation of the Senate Committee. No one can object, no matter 
what side he takes of it. Ten millions of the people, 3,000,000 of them, 
electors, have by petition asked for the privilege of voting on such an 
amendment, and they ought to be gratified. The liquor question, like all 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 49 

others, must be dealt with by the people. Their health and morals are in- 
volved in it, and it is for them to say Whether a prohibitive amendment to 
the Federal Constitution, or high-license by the States is the best means of 
curtailing the admitted evil. 

Creston (Iowa) Daily Advertiser (Ind.). — We who live in Prohibition 
States can realize more strongly than others, the need of such measures, 
being subjected to the harassments of outside influences, and embarrassed 
by the machinations of enemies of the law in our midst ; in the name of 
public safety and public morals, for the happiness of American homes, in 
the name of American manhood, womanhood and youth, we want to see 
that amendment put before the American people, that the majority may speak 
out in unmistakable words of the ballot, whether they will have King Al- 
cohol reign over them or not. And we say boldly and fearlessly that he who 
would object to submitting such an amendment to the people for their 
action, is an enemy of himself and country. 

San Diego (Cal.j \ Daily Sun (Rep.).— It would be idle and useless for 
the country to question any longer the sincerity or high-minded purpose of 
the Prohibitionists of the United States. They stand upon a plane at least 
as high as that of the emancipators of slavery in the South, only that 
they are fighting a mental and moral slavery more utterly degrading than 
the former. As a volcano whose pent-up wrath has been smothered for 
years, our country is apparently destined to have its upheaval of public 
sentiment, and to eject all unhappy and discordant elements which interfere 
with its peace and prosperity. Is this eruption to occur on the prohibition 
issue? The rumblings seem to be growing louder and louder, until the 
whole land feels the scorching fire. Every breeze fans the flame, until now 
the most obscure citizen is guided by its light. Is it not desirable, then, to 
bring this issue at once before the people in a shape devoid of politics — as 
an amendment to the Federal Constitution ? 

San Diego (Cal.) Daily Bee (Rep.). — Intemperance is a great evil, and 
the liquor question is certain to force itself upon the people, just as slavery 
did. We are assured that 10,000,000 of the people of the United States 
favor the abolition of the liquor traffic by National legislation. The data 
furnished indicate that the figures are not overdrawn. Ten millions are a 
good many people. They represent one-sixth of the population, and prob- 
ably one-half of the wealth and intelligence of the country. It is a better 
showing than slavery made at the same stage of agitation. 

A thorough believer in the Republican form of government, the Bee 
will ever contend for tolerance to the minority. The only way to test the 
public sentiment upon any question is to submit it to the suffrages of the 
people. Hence we favor the Senate Committee's recommendation. 

Middletown (Conn.) Daily Herald (Rep.). — It is stated in Senator 
Blair's report on the Prohibition Amendment to the Constitution, that at 
least ten millions of the people of the United States are in favor of abol- 
ishing the liquor traffic by National legislation. We do not doubt the accu- 
racy cf the figures. This being the case, there can be no serious objection 
to submitting the proposed amendment to the people of the United States. 

Anthony (Kan.) Daily Journal (Rep.). — Congress alone can regulate 
the commerce between the States, therefore it is necessary to pass a pro- 
hibitory amendment to the United States Constitution and submit the same 
to the States for ratification. 

Gainesville (Fla.) Daily Record (Dem.). — Under the heading "Needed 
Legislation," the Senate report is largely copied. 



50 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

Grand Forks (Dak.) Daily Herald (Rep.). — The demand for temper- 
ance reform has a right to be heard. The committee has done the only thing 
they could properly do in recommending that the amendment be referred to 
the States for ratification. It matters not whether the amendment be voted 
up or voted down, so far as concerns the inherent right of the people to 
pass upon the question. To deny this right is to subvert the principles of 
constitutional government. Congress ought to adopt the joint resolution 
and let the question go to the people. Friends of the reform will rejoice 
in the opportunity to go on record, and all others must admit the right- 
fulness of submitting so momentous a proposition, and one so deeply 
involving a Nation's well-being, to the final adjudication of the people who 
ask to be heard. The joint resolution ought to be adopted and the amend- 
ment submitted to the States for ratification. 

Grand Forks (Dak.) Daily Plaindealer (Ind.). — This move seems to the 
Plaindealer to be the essence of practical prohibition legislation. There 
are hundreds of thousands of practical business men in the United States 
earnestly in favor of prohibitory legislation whenever it can be made to 
appear to them that the legislation sought to be enacted will accomplish 
any practical results. Should the National Government take hold of the 
question no one will question its capability to suppress the liquor traffic. 

Aberdeen (Dak.) Daily News (Rep.).— There should be little or no 
objection to such submission. If the States do not want National prohibi- 
tion they can refuse to ratify the amendment. 

The Lever oi Chicago (Pro.). — There is but one sure way out of this 
trouble, and that is through National prohibition. 

New York Pioneer (Pro.). — State prohibition, wherever it has been 
fairly tried, has fully proven the claim made for it, that it is the best solu- 
tion of the liquor problem yet attempted. State prohibition as enforced in 
Kansas could only be bettered by prohibition as enforced in the surrounding 
States, which would shut off the opportunity for the smuggling in of liquor 
contrary to law. Prohibition in a group of States could only be improved 
by National prohibition, and that by International prohibition. 

The Massachusetts Ploughman (Boston — oldest agricultural newspaper 
in Mass.). — The recent State decisions regarding the adoption of a consti- 
tutional prohibitory amendment make it certain that the only way to make 
the result a success is to make it a National rather than a State issue. The 
State of Rhode Island, for example, may prohibit the sale of liquor and yet 
the effect would be hardly perceptible, because it is so easy to run over into 
Connecticut or Massachusetts and get liquor. This is peculiarly true of a 
small State like Rhode Island, and the hotel men made just complaint that 
travelers would so arrange their trips as to transact business and be out of 
the State in a day. It is true to a greater or less extent of all States. 

Prohibition can not be fairly tried in sections, it must be National in 
order to be effectual. 

The Woman's Journal (Boston). — We all know what annoyance the 
citizens who live near the border of a Prohibition State suffer in conse- 
quence of the smuggling in of liquor from the next State. If a National 
prohibition amendment can be obtained, it will bring all the States under a 
uniform law. 

Salem (Mass.) Observer (Ind.). — All will admit that such a bill passed 
and properly enforced would be productive of more good and would create 
a greater degree of prosperity in this land than was ever known before. 
Rum is the curse of any country, and we need but look at the lower classes 



ional Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 51 

of England, Ireland, France and Germany to substantiate such a statement. 
The above resolution strikes at the heart of the evil. Just so long as it is 
legal to manufacture- intoxicating beverages, and the Government of this 
country licenses the same as a legitimate business, just so long will the 
people' of this country drink the millions of gallons of beer, whisky and 
rum annually manufactured, and no temperance organization of the present 
time or in the future will have the power to stop it. The present move- 
ment to abolish the liquor traffic by prohibiting the manufacture of liquor 
that is to be sold as a beverage, is a step in the right direction, and when 
we consider how many millions of dollars would be saved annually to the 
poorer people and the attending happiness and prosperity of their families, 
by the enactment of such a law, we wonder that there is hesitation. 

Ogle County (Polo, 111.) Press (Rep.). — This action strikes at the very 
root of the evil, and we believe that "to this completion must it come at last." 
More and more are the masses of the sturdy farmers of the country coming 
to the conclusion that the drink habit is an unmixed curse to the Nation and 
the cause of most of the crime, pauperism and taxes, from all of which 
they are compelled to suffer, whether they will or no. There can be no 
doubt that the sentiment favoring National prohibition is growing rapidly 
in many parts of the country, but we fear it is yet far too weak to carry, 
though we favor its submission, because of the education which must result 
fromthe discussion of such an amendment. 

Nashville (Tenn.) Issue (Pro.). — Give no man your vote who declines 
to support this important measure. It is a right of the people to give judg- 
ment on all public questions, and no representative can deny them this 
privilege and be true to popular government. 

St. Lawrence (Canton, N. Y.) Plain dealer (Rep.). — In this report of 
Senator Blair it is stated that, judging from petitions that have been pre- 
sented to Congress during the last few years, it can hardly be doubted that 
at least ten millions of the people of the United States are in favor of abol- 
ishing the liquor traffic by National legislation. This estimate is doubtless 
reliable. The report also takes the ground that a refusal by Congress to 
submit this proposal to the States would constitute a substantial denial of 
the right of petition. The ground is well taken. So great a number of the 
citizens of the United States as are now asking and demanding the submis- 
sion of this proposition to the people of the several States have a right to 
have their petition heeded. An opportunity should be given them to be 
heard upon the merits of their cause in the forum of the States, where alone 
it can be heard and decided. 

We believe the time has come when our legislators should no longer 
hinder or delav the submission of this proposition to the States. 

Cortland (N. Y.) Standard (Rep. V— It is always a sound principle in a 
republican form of government that when a large body of citizens favor a 
change in the Constitution, and ask that the question of such change be sub- 
mitted to vote, their request should be granted. It is specially desirable 
that a National prohibition amendment should be submitted as a "test of the 
feeling of the people on this great question. If a majority of the States are 
in favor of it, they are certainly entitled to have it made a part of the fun- 
damental law. If they are not, then sensible temperance men will see the 
necessity of accepting for the present something short of this radical meas- 
ure, and of educating public sentiment up to a point where National prohi- 
bition will be possible. 



52 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

Lowell (Mass.) Sun (Dem.). — We think the proposed amendment a fa- 
natical move, but we see no reason why it should n't be submitted to the 
people. The good sense of the American people will settle it as it ought to 
be settled. 

The New Republic (Lincoln, Neb.— Pro.). — The American people are di- 
vided three or four times on the liquor question. The first division presents 
the humiliating spectacle of moneyed interest and unnatural appetite. On 
the other side, morality, humanity and temperance. Then there is the tax 
and restrictive party claiming to desire the ultimate extinction of the saloon 
and that they are on the right road to get there. Counterpoised against 
this faction stand the Prohibitionists, who believe the right way to prohibit 
is to prohibit ; go straight for what you want and let policy go to the dogs. 
Then there is the local and general party. ' ' It is right to have prohibition, ' ' 
say the local optionists, ' ' where it is wanted, but for one community to force 
on to another what is not wanted, is not in accord with the genius of our gov- 
ernment." These are met with the doctrine that majorities have the right 
to rule ; that whenever a majority of the American people say the saloon 
must go, then go it must. 

The saloon is not a local institution, neither was it ever such. Its 
blighting curse rests upon the entire land. The saloon may be truly said to 
be a National institution. The bar-tender calls the roll of his customers at 
the foot of Bunker Hill, in the snowy North, and beneath the shades of the 
palmetto, in the sunny South. The coasts of the Pacific and the Atlantic 
are alike dotted with these plague spots. The effect in every clime and in 
every age is the same. Its hell-bound mission is to degrade humanity — 
morally, mentally, socially and physically. 

Lincoln's argument that a nation had a right to self-protection is reason 
enough for the American people to banish the saloon, and to do it by the 
strong arm of the National Government. A precinct or a city may bring 
about a needed reform when the matter begins and ends with that political 
division. But to work a permanent temperance reform while liquor is flow- 
ing in on every hand would be like dipping a corner of the ocean dry. 

Pittsfield (N. H.) Analecta (Non-political). — A clearer or more logical 
statement of the exact bearing of the temperance question on the present 
and future of the American people could not have been formulated by the 
most ardent temperance advocate. True friends of prohibition everywhere 
can but rejoice at the prospect of having the question presented in a proper 
manner and in a tangible shape, eliminated from politics and unhampered 
by side issues. 

Boulder (Colo.) News (Rep.). — Whether they indorse or reject it, the 
people ought to have the privilege of voting on the question and settling it 
for themselves. Perhaps it is fortunate, though, for the friends of prohi- 
bition that it is not likely to be put to a vote for some time. If submitted 
now it would probably be defeated, but with the present growth of the tem- 
perance sentiment, in a few years, by the time Congress can be induced to 
pass it, public sentiment will indorse it at the polls. 

Sault Ste. Marie (Mich.) Herald ( Ind.). — Many are becoming of opinion 
that the problem can be solved in no other way. 

The Omaha Leader (Pro.). — The Constitution of the United States was 
adopted by the States "in order to form a more perfect union, establish 
justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, pro- 
mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves 
and our posterity." From time to time it has been found necessary to add 
to its original articles in order that the liberties and rights of the weak 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 53 

might be preserved. The liquor traffic is, beyond controversy, the great 
enemy to all that our government was framed to secure, the present nullifier 
of its constitutioual provisions. It is the chief cause of strife and crime in 
our nation. It enslaves and destroys tens of thousands of men yearly, and 
drags down to poverty, disgrace and wretchedness a much larger number 
of helpless, defenseless women and children. It preys upon the earnings 
of the people, increases the financial burdens of all for the support of its 
sponges, criminals and paupers, impoverishes its victims to enrich itself, and 
is the most cruel and powerful embodiment of injustice. It has become of 
late a thorough^ organized, centralized power, moved by one common 
purpose, and able to mass in a single State all the boodle and political in- 
fluence of its National organization. Such is its power to buy and corrupt 
the daily press and to manipulate or silence political leaders through fear 
of future punishment, that single States engaging it in battle are almost 
certain to be defeated. And if here and there a State under exceptionally 
favorable circumstances succeeds in placing Prohibition upon its statute 
books or in its constitution, it has 'undertaken a task which requires a like 
change in the National law before its own law officers can have power to 
sweep the curse from its borders. The National Government provides in 
the interstate commerce law, a safe-conduct for the foe to enter each State. 
It also licenses that which the State forbids, and so in its moral influence as 
well as commercial assistance continues to sustain the State law-breakers. 

A local evil can be cured by local laws ; a national, or nation-wide evil, 
must have national laws to eradicate it. The prohibitory laws in Kansas, 
Iowa and Maine have very greatly lessened the traffic, but it requires con- 
stant vigilance and effort to enforce them under present outside conditions — 
and in large border towns the difficulties in the way of enforcement are well- 
nigh insurmountable. The principal thing which leads men to vote against 
prohibition is the belief (assiduously nurtured by the daily papers) that the 
proposed law would not be enforced. It is not because they desire saloons. 

The people not in sympathy with the liquor traffic and desiring its 
abolishment everywhere, greatly outnumber those who conscientiously fight 
for it. And the voters who would favor an amendment to the National 
Constitution that would set the United States officers after all brewers, 
distillers and dealers in alcoholic beverages, as they now hunt the moon- 
shiners, are in an immense majority. They see that a prohibitory amend- 
ment to the National Constitution would remove the question of law-en- 
forcement from local politics, would prevent the shipment of liquor into 
prohibition territory, would destroy the perpetual guerilla warfare upon 
Prohibition State borders, would give immediate relief to the District of 
Columbia and the Territories, and would harmonize the teaching of the 
laws and add greatly to the educating power of the Nation-wide decree, 
making the alcohol seller everywhere a criminal. 

Let us fight the traffic wherever we can. Let us keep up the present 
widespread agitation that "the Nation's conscience may be rallied to right 
its laws." But let us bear in mind that the decisive battle must be fought 
out along National lines where the liquor power can not in a day concen- 
trate to crush us. Let us push for a National constitutional amendment 
prohibiting forever in the United States the " manufacture, importation, 
exportation, transportation and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage." 

Columbia (Magnolia, Ark.) Banner (Dem.). — So many memorialists 
certainly deserve a hearing. 

Bristol County (Taunton, Mass.) Republican (Rep.). — Some members of 
the Committee making this recommendation are not themselves in favor of 
adopting this amendment, but they are in favor of submitting it to the 



54 National Prohibitory Ame?idrnent Guide. 

people for their decision. The obvious sufficient reason for submitting this 
amendment to the people is that an immense number of voters desire its 
adoption. It belongs to the people to determine whether liquor shall or 
shall not be made and sold as a beverage, and all should favor the submis- 
sion of this amendment to the people whether they will themselves vote for 
its adoption or not. 

Boston Commonwealth (Ind.). — Deserves grave consideration. Many 
millions of the inhabitants of the United States are in favor of abolishing 
the liquor traffic by National legislation, and the amendment should be sub- 
mitted to the country, if for no other purpose than to ascertain accurately 
just what the sentiment of the entire people is in this regard. * * * 

The only fair, practical test of the question would be, to submit the 
amendment to the people without regard to party, and give both those in 
favor and those against it an opportunity to fight the battle out on common 
ground. 

The Good Templar Sentinel (Organ of the Grand Lodge of Virginia). — 
The Constitution of" the United States is an instrument of writing — a com- 
pact — agreed to by the States. It is fundamental law to the whole country. 
It is designed to embrace those principles of government which will benefit 
every State singly, and all the States combined. Amendments to the origi- 
nal compact have from time to time, been submitted to the States for accept- 
ance as the progress of events showed them necessary to the welfare of the 
people. The rule of action it seems to us, ought to be about this, viz. : when 
a measure for the public good is plainly demonstrated, but can hardly be 
carried into successful practice unless it becomes the National policy, then 
there should be exertion to secure the consent of the States to make it the 
National law by constitutional provision. Such we believe the matter of 
prohibiting the sale of intoxicating beverages to be. Nothing is more easily 
demonstrable than the great evil of the drink habit, which is chargeable 
upon the legalized liquor traffic. Suppress the traffic and you bring smiles 
instead of tears to multitudes. You light up the homes of thousands with 
hope and joy, in which under the license system there has been the gloom 
of despair or the dread of murderous madness. It is equally clear that the 
fact that absence of Federal law on the subject has constituted the principal 
difficulty of making State prohibition effective. " The Federal permit " has 
often been found in the hands of liquor dealers in States where prohibition 
is law. Then it can be readily seen that if Virginia were a prohibition 
State and North Carolina a license State, it would be so easy to establish a 
jug trade across the line. Hence we favor the submission of a constitutional 
amendment to the States, not for the reason that some secular journals do 
(with the hope that a defeat may cause cessation of temperance agitation), 
but with the sincere desire that the good sense and patriotism of the Amer- 
ican people will place in the National law a "thou shalt not " to the fatally 
injurious worker in human ruin. Let the proposition be submitted and 
then let rhetoric, eloquence, logic, the testimony of facts, the teachings of 
true statesmanship and the instructions of holy Writ be employed through- 
out the length and breadth of the land to give power to the appeal for rati- 
fication. The disease not being local, remedy must be otherwise than local. 
No wise practitioner of medicine will prescribe a simple plaster on the 
ulcerated finger, when he knows the whole system needs purifying. It is 
time the statesmen of our Nation were roused to the awful danger that 
threatens our loved country from a traffic as devoid of conscience as of ben- 
efit, and as murderous as it is shrewd. 

Downs (Kans.) Times (Rep.).— Let the people speak out their senti- 
ments in the way of petitioning Congress to give the whole country a chance 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 55 

to vote on a constitutional amendment for the National prohibition of the 
manufacture and sale of intoxicants, and we believe our representatives will 
not fail to bend to the wishes and the will of their constituency. 

Delta (O.) Avalanche (Rep.). — Next Sunday the churches w T ill all pre- 
sent a petition asking Congress to pass the joint resolution and so submit 
the prohibitory amendment for ratification by the States. Not only every 
temperate man ought to sign the petition, but also every man who'desires 
that his family and his neighbors' families shall be protected against the 
temptation of the poisonous cup should sign it, and many a slave to the 
drink demon will sign it for the reasons cited. 

Chamberlain (Dak.) Register (Rep.). — After watching the workings of 
local option and other schemes for fettering the traffic, we have come to the 
conclusion that this is the only effectual method of abolishing the rum 
curse. 

Southern Journal (Louisville, Ky. — Pro.). — We must have the voice of 
the people on the question, and to get a verdict we are compelled to ask 
Congress to give us an opportunity to express ourselves. 

Of necessity the question is a political one, has been, and always will 
be, until finally disposed of by constitutional amendment. 

Fairness alone demands the question to be brought before the whole 
people, and the delegated few should be shamed into submission, if by no 
other means they will submit the question to the people. 

Coldwater (Mich.) Sun (Dem). — Nothing less than National prohibition 
will effectually cure the drink evil. As long as the curse is dealt with by 
regulation it will thrive. The fountain head of the evil is the unrestricted 
importation and manufacture of liquors. When liquors are made only 
under the supervision of the general Government, and their sale as a bev- 
erage is absolutely prohibited by the same high authority, then, and not 
before, will the blight of intemperance be stamped out. 

The Deny (N. H.) News. — Since the second session of the Forty- 
fourth Congress a joint resolution has been pending proposing an amend- 
ment of the Constitution of the United States in relation to the manufacture, 
importation, exportation, transportation and sale of alcoholic liquors. It 
is earnestly hoped that when Congress next convenes it will agree to 
submit to the whole people the right to vote on the question, which several 
of the States have recently had the privilege of doing. If a majority of 
votes could not be secured, there is no doubt that the sentiment of" the 
Nation's population is strongly in favor of the National prohibition of the 
traffic in alcoholic poisons made to be used as beverages. 

Crete (Neb.) Globe (Rep.). — The people of the United States have 
become familiar with constitutional amendment campaigns, having for 
their object the engrafting of prohibitory amendments upon the State 
constitutions. For tfce past few years this particular mode had been the 
one almost universally adopted by temperance workers as giving the best 
and most permanent results. 

The recent elections throughout the East have not filled the hearts of 
the local Prohibitionists with murky sadness, as our opponents w T ould have 
us think. On the contrary, it has filled them with a belief that the present 
mode of carrying on prohibition campaigns is as radically defective as the 
old moral suasion method, and about as effective as regards the country at 
large. State campaigns are open to criticism, from the fact that, occupy- 
ing but a small portion of people at any one time, the liquor dealers all 
over the country are enabled to decide the fight just as they please by their 



56 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

command of unlimited boodle through their various organizations. True, 
the friends of temperance have the same opportunity to concentrate their 
efforts and their money to help the campaign, but owing to their lack of 
organization it is practically impossible for them to do so. 

Year by year the conviction has forced itself home to temperance 
workers that a National amendment is the thing. This movement took its 
official birth from a resolution introduced into the United States Senate, 
December 12, 1887, by Senator Blair. The movement being so radical a 
departure from all previous methods, met with little response at first, but 
lately it has been gaining ground with remarkable rapidity, and in five 
years from now the Globe predicts that the Nation will be engaged in as 
hot a battle for submission as this State saw last fall. In the meantime the 
States will continue to fall into line with a regularity that would dishearten 
friend Bacchus himself. People who are consoling themselves with the 
prophecy that this temperance agitation will soon blow over have our 
sympathy. 

The California Prohibitio?iist. — The recent defeats of attempted State 
Constitutional Prohibition serve but to emphasize the need of National 
Constitutional Prohibition. The fact that it has been defeated in so many 
States is no indication that the necessary three-fourths of the States could 
not be carried in its favor were it submitted. The fact is, that it would be 
much easier to carry every State for prohibition when the question is sub- 
mitted simultaneously, than to carry one when submitted to it alone. In 
the latter case the power of the liquor traffic of the entire Nation is concen- 
trated on the single State, while the temperance forces secure little help 
outside the State itself. In the former, the liquor power would be weak- 
ened by having its resources spread over a larger territory, while the 
temperance element would arouse to battle in every State. The repeal of 
the amendment in Rhode Island also points to the necessity for taking the 
question out of the politics of the States, where it is subjected to the abuse 
of political machinations, and placing it in the organic law of the land, 
alongside with the amendment abolishing slavery. This is the ideal pro- 
hibition law. All other kinds — even State prohibition — are but more or less 
local in their character, and subject to all the weaknesses of " local option " 
results. Once in the United States Constitution, and the lack of unison 
between State and National laws on the question will disappear. No more 
Government permits will be granted for the sale of liquors on prohibition 
territory. The problem of the shipment of intoxicants into and across 
prohibition territory will disappear, and the sisterhood of States, backed by 
the power of the general Government, will prove equal to the task of 
throttling the monster of intemperance. This must be the end of temper- 
ance and prohibition agitation. Statutory local prohibition, and State 
prohibition, both statutory and constitutional, are good as far as they go, 
but they do not go far enough, nor are they as efficient as they might be 
with the re-inforcement of National legislation to gi»e them strength and 
stability. 

Hill City (Kan.) Reveille (Rep.). — We should like to see Congress 
snbmit a National Prohibitory Amendment to. the States for adoption or 
rejection, and put at rest for awhile the clamor for such an amendment. 
We hardly believe such an amendment would receive the sanction of three- 
fourths of the States, but there could be no harm in submitting it and 
testing the popular feeling on the subject. 

Jamestown (Dak.) Capital (Dem.). — The time has come when this issue 
can no longer be ignored or evaded. As Lincoln said in his immortal 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 57 

speech opening the senatorial campaign of 1858, in regard to the slavery 
question, " We are now far on in the fifth year since a policy was inaugurated 
with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to the 
slavery agitation, but during that time this agitation has not only not 
ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion that agitation will 
not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed." There are 
many parallels in the agitation of the prohibition question of to-day and 
the anti-slavery question of thirty years ago. It has reached a point in 
public sentiment where nothing short of a crisis can or will allay it. There 
can be no fair objection to submitting the question to the legislatures of the 
States for ratification or rejection. It will be brought nearer the people, 
and the people can be trusted to settle it aright. How can any one who 
believes in the theory and principles of popular government object to this? 
The political party or the politician who objects to submitting this question 
to the people is unworthy of the confidence of the people. 

White Mountain Republic (Littleton, N. H.— Ind.).— The vote on the 
prohibitory amendment recently in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island is being 
generally accepted by the friends of license as evidence that the cause of 
prohibition is dead and that now Prohibitionists should generally turn in 
and help pass stringent license laws. They will find that the cause of pro- 
hibition is by no means dead, and that those who believe in it are just as 
firmly convinced of its necessity as ever. No true Prohibitionist can ever 
favor license, for if the sale of liquor as a beverage is wrong, it is certainly 
wrong to assent to its being sold for a price, no matter how large or small 
that price may be. We believe that prohibition of the liquor traffic by 
States is a good thing, but that the result to be desired can only be attained 
by National prohibition, and that question should be submitted to the people 
by Congress. It is stated on good authority that there are 10,000,000 
National Prohibitionists in the country, and they are certainly entitled to be 
heard. In a National contest the power of the liquor force would be divided, 
and they would be unable to bring the pressure to bear which they now do 
in State contests. Let the question be submitted to the people. 

The Living Issue (Jackson, Mich. — Pro.). — This question is political in 
its nature, and the Nation is responsible as a whole for the evils arising from 
a lack of proper legislating and enforcement of law to prohibit the traffic. 

This, like all other great questions of National character and responsi- 
bility, where the contest has been brought on by the enemv of the people 
seeking to sacrifice National reputation for personal ends, springs from the 
people and not from political sharks. It is a contest for principle demanded 
by the great conscience of the advanced moral thinkers of the day, and 
must be brought around to an ultimate contest between the moral and im- 
moral portions of society by and through a channel made for that purpose 
by the people. The mere submission of this or that question to an unor- 
ganized mass of politicians who are divided on every question except the 
one, to them, great question of deceiving and fleecing the people, and di- 
vided among themselves on all great problems of merit, will do but little 
towards settling any question of moral consequence. When the election of 
Legislatures shall have been brought about by a contest on this question, 
and the moral element of the people has been victorious, then, and not until 
then, will this question be settled by this Government as a National policy, 
and established on a National principle. To use a United States Congress 
and State legislatures for the purpose of bringing about a reform, while 
they are, as bodies, unorganized on that question, would be like using a 
wheat harvester to dig potatoes ; there would be no similarity of purpose 
between the means used and the object in view. 



58 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

Madison (Wis.) Weekly Democrat (D em.).— The W. C. T. ■ U., and 
temperance advocates generally, have been laboring with Congress for a 
number of years to get a joint resolution passed submitting the question of 
such an amendment to the Constitution to the popular vote. Thus far 
they have been unsuccessful, and not wholly unsuccessful either, for they 
have been paving the way, it would seem, for the passage of such a resolu- 
tion at some, possibly not far distant, day. There is little hope that the 
present Congress will submit such an amendment, yet it is the right thing 
to do and the thing that will be done sooner or later. All the signs of the 
times indicate this. 

Highmore (Dak.) Herald (Rep.). — There is no good reason why the 
question should not be submitted to the several States for a hearing. The 
principal opposition to such an amendment comes from the vicious classes 
from foreign countries who are not in sympathy with our institutions. Cer- 
tainly an American people ought to have a chance to say what our Consti- 
tution shall be in regard to such a vital question as the abolishment of the 
liquor traffic. 

Holdrege (Neb.) Progress (Rep.). ■ — Petitions upon petitions have 
been showered in upon Congress in favor of the submission of this impor- 
tant question. The Progress takes the same stand upon this proposition 
that it did upon the submission of the question by the State Legislature. 
When any considerable number of people express a desire to vote upon any 
political question it should be granted. To deny this is to subvert the 
Republican form of government. 

We are in favor of it also because we believe that nothing short of 
National constitutional prohibition will effectually suppress the liquor 
traffic ; because States adopting prohibition will be hampered and thwarted 
in their efforts of suppression by border States where the traffic is legalized, 
and by the National guarantees of protection to transportation and the 
rights of manufacture and sale. 

We do not believe, however, that it would be policy to submit the 
question to the whole nation at present, before the high license craze has 
had its run. Here in Nebraska, where it has had a thorough test, it is ac- 
knowledged a miserable failure as either a restrictive or reformatory measure 
against the liquor traffic. But by the time it passes the ordeal of the lower 
house, with its large Democratic vote, the nation will be ready for it. So 
we say, " God speed the movement." 

Reform, the Scandinavian paper of Eau Claire, Wis. (Pro.). — In spite 
of the defeats, which the prohibition movement recently has suffered, we 
might as well admit, that a majority of the best men in the country under- 
stand the bad influence of the drink traffic both in moral and economical 
wealth — for society and the individual as well. That the common wish to 
banish the saloon, as a necessary remedy, is more and more taking posses- 
sion of their minds, is best seen by the always growing agitation in this 
respect. 

Meanwhile, so long as the enemies of the saloon will not unite and 
agree upon how to get rid of it in the best way, nothing but defeats can be 
expected, and for every defeat the saloon-power will triumph and shake its 
political head. There is nothing unnatural in this ; while the physicians are 
quarreling about the right remedy, their patient ma}' sink and perhaps die. 
The temperance people have treated their patient as quacks. Instead 
of treating an old, radical disease in a radical way, they have experimented 
in all possible ways and means. The scientific Ireatment of driving out of 
the system that which causes the disease, has but lately come into their 
minds. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Gnide. 59 

This old disease of society may be compared with any other chronic 
disease ; it must be taken out of the system, both root and sprout, if health 
shall be regained, because as long as there is anything left, or if it only is 
driven from one part of the body to another, it will always know how to 
find nourishment — and surely some day break out again. We have just 
got a lesson in this from the late campaign in Pennsylvania, where the 
amendment was snowed down by a large majority on account of the new 
Brooks license law supported by fraud and political prejudice. It is now 
established as a fact, that this law was passed in order to kill prohibition, 
and as soon as the campaign was over in favor of the saloon, their flag of 
treason was hoisted, the new Brooks law was declared unconstitutional — 
and the temperance people of Pennsylvania still have the saloon with all 
its degradation and death as ever before. Never was a people more thor- 
oughly cheated, and right here is a problem for the "wise" temperance 
people who up to this date never believed in prohibition, to solve. 

But the problem is solved — the poison must be driven out of the system 
through National constitutional prohibition of the drink traffic. Some less 
radical means might for a short time relieve, but never cure, and a reaction 
may always happen. 

We believe that there is in this grand Nation a majority who, with 
anxiety, see the increasing bad influence of the traffic and the growing 
political power of the saloon, and who easily could put a stop to it, when 
they can learn to use the right remedy. 

The Western Good Templar (Milwaukee, Wis.). — The question of the 
prohibition of the liquor traffic has entered the halls of Congress, and has 
become the subject of agitation in the National Congress. In our opinion 
this 1 to some) troublesome question will never leave that august body until 
prohibition shall have become an established fact in all this land. A bill 
looking to engrafting an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States was introduced by Senator Blair, of New Hampshire, some years 
ago. The bill is re-introduced in each succeeding Congress, and is referred 
to the appropriate committee. Numberless petitions favoring its adoption 
constantly pour in. Every temperance organization in the land, and most 
of the churches, join in the movement . . . We desire The Western Good 
Templar and the order it advocates to be known as ardently advocating 
National constitutional prohibition. 

Inkster (Dak.) Tribune (Rep.). — That report is sound American doc- 
trine. If the people are to rule, they must have a chance to decide ques- 
tions which agitate the country. 

Miami Helmet, (Piqua, O. — Rep.). — If the people of this great coun- 
try want this inserted in their fundamental law, there is no reason why 
it should not be done, but every good reason why it should. What good 
has the drink traffic ever done one single individual out of our 65,000,000? 
Can anybody point to even one benefit? 

On the other hand, what infinite, untold, inconceivable injury has it 
accomplished ! No tongue could tell it ; no pen, not even of an angel, 
could write it. Eternity alone can reveal it, and it will take all of the ages 
of eternity to do it. Why, then, should it not be crushed by the Constitu- 
tion itself, by the fiat of the people ? We trust that the good work will go 
on till no one shall be found to make, or sell, or use the accursed stuff. 

The Northwestern Mail and the Wisconsin Prohibitionist.— -The ques- 
tion is asked again and again by honest temperance workers, " Why is 
National constitutional prohibition necessary?" The best answer comes 
from the series of State amendments lately defeated. It may be safely 



60 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

stated that every State in which a State amendment" has been defeated con- 
tains a majority of anti-saloon men. But in every case our scattered 
forces, our State forces, were met by the entire organized National force 
of the enemy. Like McClellan at Antietam, we attacked in " driblets," 
while the enemy met and easily defeated us at every point. What we must 
have is National force to meet National force. Any threatened evil of 
State rights usurped can be satisfactorily settled, or our Nation lacks the 
statesmen she has always found ready to pilot her through troublous 
times. 

Spring Lake (Dak.) Star. — We see no reason why Congress should not 
pass such a resolution and then let the people of the United States take a 
vote upon it. If ratified by two-thirds of the States, it would then become 
a law. It would be the most effectual way to work prohibition, in fact, the 
only way to get at it. 

Cape May (N. J.) Wave (Neu.). — Let the people have a chance to vote 
upon the subject. 

The Union Worker (Organ of the Nebraska W. C. T. V.).— The Union 
Worker most fully indorses the action of the Nebraska Legislature in sub- 
mitting a prohibitory amendment to the vote of the people, — as also that of 
the various other States which have done the same thing. We do not share 
in the faithless belief of some, that prohibition has received a death-blow 
by the defeat of the amendment in those States. On the contrary, it has 
aroused the people more thoroughly than ever before to the firm grasp 
which the hated rum power has upon the vitals of our country, and the 
unscrupulous methods of this, the worst foe with which we have to deal. 
No, prohibition is not dead, even in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, as 
the ram fiend will discover ere long. We would much rather see the question 
submitted and defeated, than not have it submitted at all. The same may 
be said of an amendment to the National Constitution. All the arguments 
in favor of State amendments apply with equal force to the National Consti- 
tution. We most heartily commend the action of the United States Senate 
Committee on Education in reporting favorably a bill to submit a prohibi- 
tory amendment to a vote of the States. Aside altogether from the great 
value of the amendment, such a vote is a privilege which the people have a 
right to demand. The people of the Nation have the same right to vote on. 
an amendment to the National Constitution that the people of a State have 
to vote on a State constitution. We say, give them the privilege of exer- 
cising this right. 

The Journal (McKeesport, Pa. — Pro.). — The defeat of the amend- 
ment in several States is fast hastening the campaign for National prohibi- 
tion, and when this measure comes before the Nation, the liquor power will 
find that their money and influence will avail but little, for it will be so 
scattered. In State campaigns the whisky ring could and did concentrate 
their funds and work, but when it comes to meeting the issue Nationally, 
they will have more territory than they can manage and control. In can- 
vassing for our State amendment we found voters unwilling to vote on the 
State issue, claiming that it was useless to adopt prohibition in one State 
while the adjoining State had license or free whisky, and that nothing 
short of National prohibition would do any good. They promised hearty 
support when the question should be submitted to the United States. We 
believe in going to the fountain head of the stream and cleansing it, and 
National prohibition will receive our aid and best work. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Gtdde. ♦ 61 

The York (Neb.) Star (Pro.)- — The question being submitted in the 
different States at widely different times enables our enemy, the legal- 
ized liquor traffic, to concentrate their entire force and beat us in detail ; 
but with a general movement all along the line at the same time, enables 
us to meet them on equal terms. There can then be no concentration of 
forces, in money or workers, in any one State. At best, State prohibition 
is only local option on a larger scale: The local option law rigidly enforced 
only drives the liquor dealers out of the community, while State prohibi- 
tion, as in Iowa and Kansas, on our east and south, drives the outlawed 
dealers from their States to the asylum found in Nebraska, protected by 
our high-license laws. 

If we had a National prohibitory law T and an efficient party to see that 
it was properly enforced, the lawless element from one community or State 
could not move into a neighboring city or State so as to control its laws, 
but would be held in check by laws enacted by their own town or State. 

With a National law, liquor could not be shipped from one State into 
another in defiance of State enactments. That the people of the United 
States are being awakened on this subject may be inferred from the fact 
that over ten millions of people have joined in petitions to Congress asking 
'that such a biil be passed as to allow the States to vote upon the subject, 
and there is no just reason why the States should not be allowed to vote on 
the question. 

Lockesburg (Ark.) Tocsin (Dem.). — The most important step that has 
been taken toward suppressing this evil is the proposition for submitting a 
proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States prohibiting 
the liquor traffic. Many petitions signed by thousands of people have 
gone forward urging the submission of the proposition. That it is right to 
submit this question to the people there is no doubt, and we can heartily 
indorse the proposition. That is the only fair and just way to get the 
matter before the people in order that a full and free expression of their 
will may be had. If all temperance people vote as they talk, and all 
church members carry out their vows to their God, there is no doubting the 
success of the proposition. The question will come before the people in a 
non-partisan shape. Republicans, Democrats, and all others who favor 
temperance can vote together on this great question. 

Potter County (Dak.) Anchor (Ind.).— The Aberdeen News advocates 
the submission of a prohibition amendment to the National Constitution. 
The Anchor advocates that, too. 

The Antelope (Neb.) Tribune (Pro.). — The time is fully ripe for 
National prohibitory amendment work. There are many who believe that 
local and State work is futile while Uncle Sam upholds the traffic. Let it 
be outlawed by an amendment to the National Constitution and the deputy- 
marshals will make even bootleg transactions as risky as the present sale 
without Government permit. It is time to work earnestly for National 
prohibition. That is the ultimate object of all consistent Prohibitionists, 
and we may as well strike for it at once. 

The Anchor (Organ of the W. C. T. U. of North Carolina).- Intelli- 
gence is all that our people lack in order to indorse with the ballot that 
which Congress can. and surely will, submit to the States at an eariy day. 
May the All-Wise Father hasten the day when we have our next amend- 
ment to the Federal Constitution. May His Spirit move upon the hearts 
of the people until when prohibition be submitted to the suffrage of the 
people, we can rejoice in National prohibition reigning supreme throughout 
our borders. 



62 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

Newaygo (Mich.) Tribune (Ind.)— Conceding the improbability of the 
Senate and House agreeing to such submission (although their duty to do 
so is abundantly shown in the report), yet the mere fact of a favorable 
report on such a sweeping measure, and the discussion consequent thereon 
can not fail to be of great advantage to the cause of prohibition. 

Sheldon (Dak.) Enterprise (Rep.) t — Surely the best way to deal with 
the prohibition question. By all means let the question be submitted as a 
constitutional amendment. 

The Organizer (Organ of the Indiana W. C. T U.). — The report of the 
Senate Committee on Senator Blair's joint resolution for a Constitutional 
Prohibitory Amendment is itself full of encouragement, showing as it does 
how the tide of public sentiment in favor of prohibitory legislation is rising, 
compelling respectful consideration of the highest legislative body in the 
laud, and demanding the privilege of exercising the people's right to say 
whether the liquor traffic shall longer exist. 

The Temperance Record (Hyde Park, Mass.). — This law, prohibition, 
which, is the ground of all law — "Thou shalt not do evil," — is the only 
course open for the suppression of the liquor traffic. Men may be beguiled 
as much as they please by the sophistries of interested parties, or by their • 
own appetites, yet there are few but know in their hearts that nothing 
but prohibition can be effective, and especially is this true of the rumseller 
himself. 

This question is becoming a more and more disturbing influence in poli- 
tics, and it will not down until it is settled, and settled right. Prohibition 
must be the aim of all earnest workers,— prohibition, not for the State alone, 
but for the Nation. 

The best way to accomplish this is by continuing the agitation for con- 
stitutional amendments. The constitution of every State and of the United 
States should contain an article forever forbidding the manufacture, impor- 
tation, exportation, transportation and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a bev- 
erage, accompanied by sufficient legislation to enforce it. 

This we feel assured will be the final outcome of the movement whose 
proportions have attained such magnitude and are increasing constantly. 
Was body slavery an evil — a crime ? It almost sinks into insignificance 
beside this vaster, more atrocious crime — the slavery of soul and body. 
Has the prohibition of the former found place in the Constitution of the 
United States ? So much the more should the prohibition of the latter then 
find a place. 

To those who clamor for the removal of this burning question from 
politics we say : "Put prohibition into the Constitution, back it by appro- 
priate laws, and you have forever removed it from the realm of politics, and 
it can be done in no other way." 

To those temperance workers who feel discouraged at the apparent 
reverses we have met with, we say: "Work on! work on! Be of good 
courage, the cause is gaining. Every defeat but brings the day of final 
triumph nearer. With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a 
thousand years as one day." 

Lowville (N. Y.) Tim.es (Ind. -Rep.). — This recommendation should be 
promptly accepted by the Senate, and the joint resolution passed by that 
body. It is the duty of governments to care for and protect their subjects, 
and'there is nothing in which the people need protection so much as from 
the ravages of the liquor traffic. The "Federal Government is strong enough 
to deal with this question, and give the people the protection they demand, 
if it will only do it. The report of this committee looks toward such a con- 
summation. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 63 

Prohibition Advocate (Baltimore, Md.). — While it may be necessary to 
continue the fight along State lines for a longer or shorter period, let us not 
forget that National constitutional prohibition is our ultimate goal. Until 
we attain this our work will not be accomplished. 

\V. C. T. U. State Work (Organ of the Wisconsin W. C. T. U.).— A 
Republican government can not well do otherwise than give the people an 
opportunity to decide this vital question. 

Ord (Neb.) Quiz (Rep.). — It is the right of the people that they shall be 
given a chance to decide this question. We hope to see the question sub- 
mitted to the jury of the States for their verdict. 

Northfield (Minn.) Independent (Ind.). — The only use at present of the 
movement is education and agitation. 

Der Deutsch-Amerikaner (Chicago. — Pro.). — A National prohibitory 
constitutional amendment is an absolute necessity to save our beloved 
country from degradation and ruin. 

The Looking Glass (Monroe, Neb. — Pro.). — This is the aim of all Pro- 
hibitionists and the end toward which every consistent temperance work 
tends. And it meets with more favor from temperance people than any 
other movement, because it is adequate to the evil, has promise of success, 
puts an end to all local squabbles, all State jealousies, and arrays the Gov- 
ernment against its greatest enemy with the sure promise of success. All 
other work is preliminary to this and every effort must culminate in such 
an amendment, and then, and only then, will our country take her stand on 
a sure basis, leading the world toward the highest type of Christian civili- 
zation. 

The Kentucky Good Templar. — It is conceded by all intelligent, well- 
informed people that the traffic in alcoholic beverages is an unmitigated 
curse. Recognizing it as such, it becomes the duty of the individual 
citizen to antagonize the traffic, in his person, at his home, in his church, 
at the polls — anywhere, everywhere, and under all circumstances. It is 
the duty of Government to antagonize it in the town, in the city, in the 
county, in the State, in the Nation. Government can only effectively 
antagonize by prohibitory expression in its organic law, hence we indorse 
constitutional prohibition as the just, righteous and sensible method of 
treating the subject. 

The Friend of Home (Effingham, 111. — Pro.). — The bright particular 
"star" to which we Prohibitionists "hitch our wagon" is constitutional 
prohibition of the liquor traffic in State and Nation. That is the ultimatum 
of all our efforts. It is the only certain condition of complete success. 
It is the only form of prohibition that meets the approval of the best class 
of our Germans. 

Let us, therefore, move on as rapidly as possible, every banner bearing 
the one battle-cry, Constitutional Prohibition in State and Nation of the 
traffic in alcoholic beverages. 

Rock County (Wis.) IV. C. T. U. Banner.— It is a National sin — why 
not National prohibition ? No more can nations than individuals transgress 
God's laws without punishment, and we believe His displeasure is resting 
upon this nation to-day. The prayers and petitions of several millions of 
people must and will be recognized, and we have already proven the utter 
inability of the State to probe deep enough to root out this cancerous diffi- 
culty. Thus we are learning more and more that nothing short of National 
legislation will for any length of time stay the ravages of this rum demon. 



64 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

The more than Spartan wives, mothers and daughters of this republic are 
organizing and becoming strengthened for the work, and with the power 
of woman's love and their faith in the righteousness of this cause and in 
their divine Master, this agitation will never cease until by National action 
the curse is removed. 



THE FAMOUS "MEMORIAL OF THE AMERICAN 

HOME FOR PROTECTION FROM THE 

AMERICAN SAEOON." 

PRESENTED To EACH NATIONAL POLITICAL CONVENTION AND, 
TO CONGRESS IN i! 



[The Lever of Chicago in its issue of March 21, 1888, gave a fac-simile 
of the memorial which was presented to the Republican Convention, and 
editorially, in part, said : ' ' One of the most important documents ever 
written in the interest of our cause is that on our first page, known as the 
J Memorial of the American Home for Protection from the American 
Saloon.' * * * The essence of this memorial is in the fact that it is 
the prayer of the American Home for Protection from the American Saloon. 
The American home stands for all that is purest and best, while the Amer- 
ican saloon stands for all that is vilest and worst in America. These two 
institutions are the exact opposites of each other. In proportion as the 
home is happy and prosperous, the saloon is deserted, while in proportion' 
as the saloon is prosperous the home is deserted. It is as impossible for the 
saloon and the home to prosper side by side as it is for light and darkness 
to dwell together in unity. As this memorial well says, the home is the 
' citadel of patriotism, purity and happiness,' while the saloon is the ' relent- 
less ' enemy of the home. * * * The hour when Miss Willard appeared 
before the Resolution Committee of the National Republican Convention of 
1884 is one which will be long remembered. * * * Miss Willard carried 
with "her to that committee-room memorials from each of the forty-eight 
States and Territories, all similar to the one she had presented from the 
National society. These memorials were signed by the officers of the 
State and Territorial Woman's Christian Temperance Unions from which 
they came, and represented the sentiments of the very best people of those 
States and Territories."] 

" For God and Home and Native Land." 

THE MEMORIAL OF THE AMERICAN HOME FOR PROTECTION 
FROM THE AMERICAN SALOON. 

[N. B. — The following Memorial is to be presented to each National polit- 
ical convention this spring [1884], and to Congress next winter. It is issued 
under the auspices of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 
and is strictly non-partisan. It will be presented by a delegation of ladies 
representing all parts of the United States.] 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 65 

To the National Convention of the Republican Party. — 

We, members of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the 
United States, herein represented by the signatures of our officers, believe 
that, while the poison habits of the Nation can be largely restrained by an 
appeal to the intellect through argument, to the heart through sympathy, 
and to the conscience through motives of religion, the traffic in those poi- 
sons will be best controlled by prohibitory law. 

We believe the teachings of science, experience and the Golden Rule 
combine to testify against the traffic in alcoholic liquors as a drink, and that 
the homes of America, which are the citadels of patriotism, purity and hap- 
piness, have no enemy so relentless as the American saloons. 

Therefore, as citizens of the United States, irrespective of sect or sec- 
tion, but having deeply at heart the protection of our homes, we do hereby 
respectfully and earnestly petition you to advocate and to adopt such meas- 
ures as are requisite, to the end that prohibition of the importation, expor- 
tation, manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages may become an integral 
part of the National Constitution. 

And that your party candidate shall be by character and public pledge, 
committed to a National Constitutional Amendment. 

Frances E. Wixlard, President. 
C. B. Bueli,, Cor. Secretary. 
Mary A. Woodbridge, Rec Sec. 
Esther Pugh, Treasurer. 



MISS WILLARD'S ADDRESS. 

Miss Willard, in addressing the committee, in part, said : — I am here in 
no individual character, but as a delegated representative of the Woman's 
Christian Temperance Union of forty-eight States and Territories, including 
the District of Columbia, to present to your thought the memorial of the 
American home against the American saloon. You will notice that we 
make no note of foreign drinking customs, but speak and work directly 
against an institution which derives its authority from our own Government. 
Our society is the lineal descendant of that whirlwind of the Lord known 
as the "Woman's Temperance Crusade" of 1874, and stands not only for 
total abstinence and prohibition, but for no sectarianism in religion, no sec- 
tionalism in politics, no sex in citizenship. We recognize State rights as to 
the adoption of these principles, but move forward in one grand, solid pha- 
lanx—a society as well known in Florida as it is in Oregon by the results of 
the last ten years' work ; a society that has an open hand for Catholic and 
Protestant, for the foreign as well as the native born. 

We know that in America the great clanging mill of Government, kept 
in motion at enormous cost, turns out just one product, and that is protec- 
tion for life and limb and property. But it seems to us women that the 
citadel of purity, the palladium of liberty, the home, our brothers have for- 
gotten adequately to protect. Therefore I am here to-day to speak on 
behalf of millions of women, good and true, but grieved and sorrowful, to 
ask that the guarantees and safeguards of law shall be stripped from the 
saloons of our country ; that their tarnished gold shall no more pollute our 
treasury, and that the land we love may at once and forever go out of part- 
nership with the liquor traffic. * * * I have no harsh words to speak of 
any. The liquor traffic is the awful heritage of a less wise, less kind, and 
less enlightened past. For its existence in this gentler age we are all more 
or less responsible. 



66 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

Let us combine to put it away "with malice toward none, with charity 
for all." * * * We ask you to declare in favor of submitting to the 
people a National constitutional amendment for the prohibition of the 
liquor traffic. 

NATIONAL PROHIBITION VERSUS THE HIGH LI- 
CENSE AND LOCAL OPTION POLICY. 

"A recognized leader of the Republican party, one who stands high in 
its councils, has a wide reputation, and holds to-day a very important official 
position, said to us this last week: 'The policy agreed upon and now 
being carried into effect by Republican leaders is to compel the present great 
temperance agitation to crystallize around High License and Local Option, 
an i thus eliminate it as a disturbing question from politics. The more far- 
sighted of the liquor men have consented to this policy, so as to head off 
prohibition. I speak what I know. I am a believer in the principle of 
prohibition and wish to see this Republican policy defeated. It must be 
defeated. Its success will postpone prohibition indefinitely. It can be 
defeated, in my judgment, only in one way, and that is by fixing public 
attention upon the necessity for National Prohibition — by insisting upon this 
and by a determination to be satisfied with nothing less. Make that the 
political issue, then this agitation will not end until the attitude of the 
Government, National and State, toward the liquor traffic will be fixed, 
rightly and permanently fixed. I will help in the effort for National Pro- 
hibition, but at present my name is not to be used in this connection. There 
are those who are recognized leaders in both the old parties, North and South, 
who stand with me in this determination. When the time comes for us to 
strike the blow, you will hear from us regardless of what befalls our parties. 
We believe that a reorganization of the political parties in the near future is 
a necessity, and the immediate occasion for that reorganization will be . 
National Prohibition.' The day of redemption draweth nigh." — The Voice, 
March 15, 1888. 

STRENGTH OF SENTIMENT. 

CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION SUPPORTED BY AN IMMENSE FOL- 
LOWING. 

[ The Great Popular Feeling in Behalf of the Principle — The Results of fif- 
teen Constitutional Amendment Struggles — More than 1,600,000 Men 
Vote for Constitutional Prohibition — Our Enemies Fail to Command a 
Majority of the Electors — The Hopefulness of the Future Very Clearly 
Demonstrated. ,] 

In the table below, the first column shows the vote for constitutional 

prohibition in each State and Territory named ; the second column gives 

the number of men not voting on the prohibition question at the time of its 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 



67 



submission, this number being estimated in each case by subtracting the 
total vote for and against prohibition from the total vote cast at the nearest 
political election ; and the third column shows the total vote cast for the 
chief candidate at the nearest political election. 

For Pro ^~ ot votin S for Total vote at 

i°h-t-~ or against nearest political 

lubitxon. prohibition. election. 

Dakota (18S5) 15,57° 55,S6i 86,768 (Cong., '84.) 

Iowa 1.1 8S2) 155.436 10,935 292,048 (Sec'y, '82.) 

Kansas (1880) 92,302 24.630 201,236 (Pres., '80.) 

Maine (1884) 70,783 47.819 i4 2 ,4 I 3 iGov., '84.) 

Mass. (1889) 86,459 124.973 344,5*7 (Pres., '88.) 

Mich. (1887) 178,636 17,968 380,885 (Gov., '86.) 

N. Hamp. (1889) 25,786 34, 160 90,922 (Pres., '88.) 

N. Car. (1881) 48,061 29,014 241,208 (Pres., '80.) 

Ohio (1883) 323,189 154,104 718,268 (Gov., '83.) 

Oregon (1887) 19,973 7,023 54,954 (Cong., '86.) 

Penn. (1889) 296,617 216,307 997,568 (Pres., '88.) 

R. Isl'd (1889) 9,956 4,829 43.100 (Gov., '89.) 

Tenn. (1887) 117,504 41,083 303.784 (Pres., '88.) 

Texas (18S7) 129,270 7,616 357,513 (Pres., '88.) 

\V. Va. (18S9) 41,668 41,317 159,540 (Pres., '88.) 

Totals . 1,611,300 837,639 4,414,724 

Subtracting the number of prohibition voters and the non-voters from 
the entire number of voters, we find that the anti-prohibition side of the 
question was sustained by 1,965,785 men — only 354,722 more than sustained 
prohibition. That is, the anti-prohibitionists lacked 241,444 votes of a ma- 
jority. These figures present a phase of the situation that is not generally 
understood by the people. They show that, despite all the influences oper- 
ating to defeat the amendments, our opponents constitute not a majority, 
but a minority of the voters. The force of this truth is especially strong 
when the returns of the elections in West Virginia, New Hampshire, Massa- 
chusetts and Pennsylvania are studied. 

In West Virginia there were 76,555 votes cast against the prohibitory 
amendment. But the total Presidential vote last fall was 159,540. Hence 
our opponents lacked 3,215 votes of a majority. 

In New Hampshire the anti-prohibitionists polled 30,976 votes last 
March — 14,486 less than a majority of all the votes cast at the Presidential 
election of 1888. 

In Massachusetts, 133,085 votes were polled against prohibition— 39,164 
less than a majority. 

In Pennsylvania the vote against the amendment was 484,644 — 13,941 
less than a majority. 

If the anti-prohibitionists, with the powerful combination of influences 
that worked in their favor, were unable to control a majority of the voters 
in these four States, what chance for success will they have when the op- 
portunity comes to make a fair test of public sentiment under conditions 



6S National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

not entirely unfavorable to prohibition? This question can be answered 
very satisfactorily by referring to the results of the amendment contests 
that were conducted before the liquor men adopted the methods that proved 
so potent in the recent campaigns. 

When the agitation for constitutional prohibition was begun, the rum- 
sellers had no conception of the feeling that would be developed in its favor. 
They laughed at the idea. They supposed that it would be supported by 
only a few thousands of extremists. They formed no effective organizations, 
circulated little or no literature, and took no pains to spread the views of 
respectable and disinterested opponents of the policy. Nevertheless, they 
offered a general resistance, used their henchmen as poll-workers and had 
the favor (not in many instances very outspoken, however,) of the press 
and the leading politicians. On the other hand, the Prohibitionists had 
earnest supporters but imperfect organizations and meagre funds. Condi- 
tions for and against the amendments in these early rights were verj' nearly 
evenly balanced, and the results were as shown in the following table : 

, Proh ibition. , 

Yes. No. 

Kansas (1880) 92,302 84,304 

North Carolina* (1881) 48,061 164,133 

Iowa (1882) 155,436 125,677 

Ohio (1883) . _^ 323,189 240,975 

Maine (i884) . 70,783 ■ 23,811 

Dakota (1885) i5,57o 15.337 

Rhode Island (1886) 15,113 9,230 

Totals 720,454 663,467 

Prohibition majority ; 56,987 

" " (omitting North Carolina) . . . 173,059 

After the Rhode Island election of 1886 the liquor men began to realize 
that it was not safe to despise the prohibition sentiment. They organized 
the National Protective Association in the fall of that year, and from then 
forward new tactics were used in every non-partisan prohibition struggle. 
These tactics reached perfection in the Pennsylvania struggle, when, accord- 
ing to the Philadelphia Press (a paper not friendly to Prohibition), a round 
million of dollars was expended to defeat prohibition. The Voice, in many 
elaborate articles, has fully described the methods resorted to by the liquor 
men. — The Voice, July 11, 1889. 

ORIGIN STATE CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 

[From " The Constitutional Prohibitionist," compiled by J. N. Stearns.l 
The movement for a prohibitory constitutional amendment originated 
in the Order of the Sons of Temperance of Eastern New York in 1856. The 
Court of Appeals had just decided the prohibitory law of the State uncon- 

*^he large liquor majority in North Carolina was caused by the faultiness of the pro- 
posed amendment, which was not satisfactory to the temperance people. Besides, the 
Republican leaders ^as admitted by Hon. D. I,. Russell last year) threw the negro vote sol- 
idly for rum. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 69 

stitutional, and Wm. H. Armstrong, Esq., then chief officer of the Order, 
conceived the idea of a constitutional amendment, recommended it to the 
Grand Division in January, 1857, and it received unanimous indorsement. 
The Daily Times of January 19, 1857, in an editorial, said : 

The G. W. P's report contained a strong recommendation of an effort 
to introduce a prohibitory provision into the State Constitution by amend- 
ment. This plan was urged as being an appeal directly to the people, to be 
decided by them by ballot, after the amendment shall have passed one 
Legislature, and been again passed by the succeeding Legislature, chosen 
after three months' publication of the amendment {vide State Const., Art. 
13). That if the proposed amendment shall pass such an ordeal, the sov- 
ereign people thus determining thrice in its favor, the moral effect will be 
such as to insure the enforcement of the provision ; and, on its good fruits 
showing themselves on every hand, the popularity of prohibition will be- 
come universal, and the blessings of freedom from the evils of intemperance 
will become perpetual in this State. It is not proposed, during the slow 
progress of this amendment, to intermit any efforts for relief in the mean- 
time ; but the G. W. P. urged that no remedy will be effective until the 
Constitution is itself made prohibitive. 

The Grand Division at four different sessions approved and advocated 
the passage of the amendment, and other organizations also gave it their 
indorsement. 

The following prohibitory amendment was introduced into the Legis- 
lature of 1860-61 (see New York Tribune of April 9, i860) : 

Resolved {if the Assembly concur), That the Constitution of the State 
be amended as follows : 

" The sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is hereby prohibited, 
and no law shall be enacted or be in force after the adoption of this amend- 
ment to authorize such sale, and the Legislature shall by law prescribe the 
necessary fines and penalties for any violation of this provision." 

Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That the foregoing amendment be 
referred to the Legislature to be chosen at the general election of senators, 
and that, in conformity to Section 1 of Article 13 of the Constitution, it be 
published for three months previous to the time of such election. 

It was reported upon favorably by the appropriate committees of each 
House. From the Senate Committee's report, submitted April 6, 1860, we 
make the following extract : 

It is, by the concurrent resolutions reported by your committee, pro- 
posed to submit this whole question to the people, from whom all power 
emanates, and as a majority decide, so let it be determined ; and it is be- 
lieved that, if a full and fair discussion of the question be had before the peo- 
ple, that the decision will be in favor of the amendment proposed ; and when 
that decision is made it should be final, and not left to changeable legisla- 
tion ; and, therefore, it is proposed by the amendment reported to engraft it 
into the Constitution and make it a part of the organic law. Your commit- 
tee believe that the plan proposed by them is a proper one to remedy the 
evil. After it shall have received the sanction of this Legislature, and the 
Legislature to be chosen at the next general election of senators, it will 
be submitted to the people, it is hoped, at a special election, where it will be 
decided upon its own issue and merits, unmingled with any political issues 
or considerations, leaving the people free to vote upon this question, irre- 



yo National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

spective of party ; this question has already embarrassed political parties 
too long, and should be removed therefrom by the mode proposed. 

That the amendment proposed in the resolutions herewith reported shall 
receive the full and candid consideration of the Senate, and such action 
taken thereon as shall redound to the honor and glory of the State and the 
best interests of the people, is the sincere desire of the committee. 

The amendment was adopted in the Senate of the State of New York on 
the 13th of March, 1861, by a vote of 20 to 6, all the Republicans and one 
Democrat voting in the affirmative, and all the other Democrats voting in 
the negative, and by the Assembly 69 to 33 on the 5th of April, 1861. 

This was officially advertised according to law in the daily papers of the 
time by the clerks of the Senate and Assembly. 

Mr. Armstrong, in writing upon this subject, says . 

It will be observed that the last step was its passage by the State Assem- 
bly on the 5th of April, 1861. Alas ! that it was that date ; for in seven days 
thereafter the cannon-shot fired at Fort Sumter not only ushered in the 
great "war of the Rebellion, but shattered the fair prospects of the consum- 
mation of the first prohibitory constitutional amendment ever passed by the 
Legislature of any State. 

It is needless to show how the civil war prevented all further successful 
consideration of the subject ; and when the war was over, the demoraliza- 
tion induced by it, on the subject of liquor-drinking, prevented any success 
for years afterward. 



PART II. 

PLAN OF CANVASS FOR NATIONAL CONSTITU- 
TIONAL PROHIBITION. 

NATIONAL PROHIBITORY AMENDMENT COMMITTEES. 

The canvassing for National Constitutional Prohibition is to be con- 
ducted by committees to be called National Prohibitory Amendment Com- 
mittees. 

These committees for local canvassing are to be composed of represent- 
atives of the various prohibition organizations in a canvassing district 
consisting of one school district, except in large cities, where the school 
district may be divided into several canvassing districts. 

The Congressional canvassing is to be conducted by a committee con- 
sisting of the General Officers of the National Prohibition societies of the 
United States, the General Officers of the National Executive Committee of 
the Prohibition party, and the National W. C. T. U. Superintendent of 
Legislation and Petitions. The National Prohibition societies include the 
following, viz. : 

National Woman's Christian Temperance Union. 

National Temperance Society. 

Right Worthy Grand Lodge, I. O. G. T. 

National Division Sons of Temperance of North America. 

Supreme Council Templars of Honor and Temperance. 

Supreme Council Royal Templars of Temperance. 

National Anti-Nuisance League. 

National Inter-Collegiate Prohibition Association. 

National Young Men's Prohibition League. 

National Prohibition Press Association. 

National Junior Prohibitionists. 

National German- American Prohibition League. 

The State Legislative canvassing, after proposal of the amendment for 
securing its ratification, is to be conducted by committees consisting of the 
General Officers of each State Prohibition societies, the General Officers of 
the State Executive Committee of the Prohibition party, and the State 
]W. C. T. U. Superintendent of Legislation and Petitions. 

(71) 



72 Natiofial Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

WORK OF NATIONAL PROHIBITORY AMENDMENT COMMITTEES. 

Committee work is classed under two general heads, viz. : 

First. — Before proposal of the Amendment. 

Second. — After proposal of the Amendment. 

Under the first general head the work is subdivided into seven distinct 
branches, the first six to be carried on by local committees and the seventh 
by a National committee, viz. : 

i. Registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists. 

2. Congressional petition work. 

3. Public discussions/ 

4. Press work. 

5. Distribution of literature. 

6. Reporting local work ^prohibition organizations. 

7. Congressional canvassing and reports. 

Under the second general head the work is subdivided into two distinct 
branches, the first to be carried on by the local committees and the second 
by the State committee, the former local work as far as applicable being 
continued, viz. : 

1. State legislative petition work. 

2. State legislative canvassing. 



HOW TO ORGANIZE NATIONAL PROHIBITORY AMENDMENT 

COMMITTEES. 

I.— N. P. A. Committees for Locai, Work. 

The local work is to be carried on in school districts. The territory to 
be canvassed by any one committee may be called its canvassing district. 

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union having made this amend- 
ment a special line of work, having county and district as well as local and 
State organizations through which to carry it on, and having a suitable 
department, that of Legislation and Petitions, ready to do its bidding, the 
initiatory steps for the organization of these committees and the responsi- 
bility for executing a part of the system of official reporting are committed 
to its care. 

Where there is more than one Woman's Christian Temperance Union 
in any school district, the Superintendents of Legislation and Petitions and 
their Assistant Superintendents, should either carry on together their part 
of the work, or should divide it among them, dividing anew as other Unions 
are organized. Large cities having but one school district, may be divided 
into several canvassing districts. 

In towns and country school districts having no Woman's Christian 
Temperance Union, the county Superintendent of Legislation and Petitions 
and her Assistant Superintendents will carry on the W. C. T. U. part of the 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 73 

committee work until a W. C. T. U. has been organized in that town or 
district. The appointment of one or more Assistant Superintendents in 
each of such towns or districts would make the work easy. 

In counties without a county W. C. T. U., the part of the work assigned 
to the W. C. T. U. will be performed by the District or State Department of 
Legislation and Petitions until county organizations are established. 

The initiatory steps for organizing a National Prohibitory Amendment 
Committee for local work, are as follows : 

The proper Department of Legislation and Petitions, under direction of 
the W. C. T. U., should secure a copy of the National Prohibitory Amend- 
ment Guide for each of the other prohibition organizations in the Canvass- 
ing District, and secure a temporary place of meeting, and then address 
each prohibition organization in substance as follows : 

FORM OF LETTER TO PROHIBITION ORGANIZATIONS ASKING APPOINTMENT 

OF REPRESENTATIVES TO SERVE ON N. P. A. COMMITTEES FOR 

EOCAIv WORK. 



To the 



Greeting : In accordance with the plan contained in the National Pro- 
hibitory Amendment Guide, a copy of which is herewith presented, the 
undersigned representatives of the W. C. T. U. respectfully ask the appoint- 
ment of two (or more) members of your society (Lodge, League, Club, As- 
sociation, Bureau or Union) to act with a like number of representatives of 
each of the other prohibition organizations of this school district (or of 

the and wards) as a National Prohibitory Amendment 

Committee for local work. A meeting of the representatives to organize 

the Committee and apportion the work will be held in , 

on , 18 . . , at . . o'clock p. m. 

Truly yours, 

Supt. Legislation and Petitions, W. C. T. U. 

Ass't Supt. Legislation and Petitions, W. C. T. U. 

The above communication should be sent to the Secretaries of the 
respective organizations, and at least two weeks' notice should be given of 
time of meeting. 

Should any organization fail to appoint representatives before the meet- 
ing takes place, a sub-committee should be appointed to communicate fur- 
ther with such organization and urge the appointment of representatives. 

The organizations appointing should furnish the W. C. T. U. represen- 
tatives with the names of their representatives, and each representative 
should be personally notified of every subsequent meeting, by the Secretary 
of the Committee. 



74 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

Appoint a sub committee on public discussions and press work to as- 
sume the charge of these branches of the work. 

II. — N. P. A. Committed for Congressional Work. 

Immediate organization of the Committee for Congressional work is not 
practicable, but immediate commencement of the work is necessary. 

Until the organization of the committee, the National W. C. T. U. Su- 
perintendent of Legislation and Petitions will act as its temporary chairman. 

Organization may be effected at the National Capital the day preceding 
the next hearing on the Amendment before the Senate Committee on Edu- 
cation and Labor, the committee to which the amendment is referred by 
the Senate. 

The temporary Chairman, immediately following the first publication 
of the Guide, will notify each of the general officers of the several National 
Prohibition organizations of his or her membership on the committee, send- 
ing to each a copy of the Guide. 

She will secure appointments of ' ' hearings ' ' before the Committees of 
Congress to which the amendment is referred, and secure a place of meet- 
ing for organizing the committee, and notify each member of the committee 
of these arrangements as soon as effected. 

III.— N. P. A. Committees for State Legislative Work. 

Committees for State Legislative work need not be organized until after 
proposal of the amendment. But as soon as the proposition has been sub- 
mitted, this work should begin. Any number of members of the Com- 
mittee, meeting at the State Capital in response to the call to organize, may 
effect organization. The call will be sent to the general officers of each 
State Prohibition Organization by the State W. C. T. U. Superintendent of 
Legislation and Petitions. She will address each, in substance, as follows, 
viz. : 

FORM OF CALL TO ORGANIZE STATE LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEES. 

The National Prohibitory Amendment having been proposed to the 
States for ratification, I therefore, as required -by the National Prohibitory 
Amendment Guide, hereby call the members of the Legislative Committee 

of this State to meet in , at the State Capital, on 

18 — , at . o'clock, p. M., to organize. The full mem- 
bership of the Committee consists of the General Officers of the State Pro- 
hibition societies, the General Officers of the State Executive Committee of 
the Prohibition party, and the State W. C. T. U. Superintendent of Legis- 
lation and Petitions. Truly yours, 



State W. C. T. U. Supt. Legislation and Petitions. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 75 

BEFORE PROPOSAL OF THE AMENDMENT. 
General Directions to N. P. A. Committees for Local Work. 

To Secretaries of N. P. A. Committees for Local Work.— 
Each Secretary will require a large blank book for recording the part of the 
canvass preceding proposal of the Amendment. It may be called the General 
Register, and should be large enough to use until June, 1892. Within this 
time we may reasonably expect the Amendment to be submitted to the 
States for ratification. 

To determine its thickness, estimate a line to each of one-half of the 
citizens over sixteen years of age in the canvassing district, and allow for 
increase in population and for minors who will reach sixteen before June, 
1892. Use the number of pages this amounts to for copying the names of 
National Constitutional Prohibitionists from the canvassing registers of the 
several committeemen. Then add to the size of the blank book twenty-four 
more pages. Use these for the index, for registering the committee from 
year to year, and for records of representative petitions to Congress, public 
discussions, press work and distribution of literature. 

Should any division of the general register give out, begin another book 
with the overflow. Call the new book the supplement of the old. 

The width of the general register will need to be at least that of fools- 
cap paper in order to conveniently make use of the given forms. 

Employ the first page of the general register for the index, using the 
following form : 

NO. I. 

Form of Index. 

page. 
N. P. A. Committee for Local Work 

National Constitutional Prohibitionists : 

Men 

Women 

Minors over sixteen 

Representative petitions to Congress 

Public Discussions : 

Sermons advocating the N. P. A 

Addresses advocating the N. P. A 

Anti N. P. A. sermons 

Anti N. P. A. addresses 

Press Work 

Distribution of literature 

On the second page of the general register enroll the committee for the 
current year. Leave the next two pages for continuing the record. Use 
the following form : 



76 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

NO. 2. 

Form of Enroujng N. P. A. Committees for Local Work. 

National Prohibitory Amendment Committee for Local Work of . . . 
for the year 18 — . 

Prohibition Organizations. \ Names of Representatives. \ Residence Address. 

On the fifth page of the general register begin the registration of Na- 
tional Constitutional Prohibitionists, using form No. 4. This form consists 
of three parts — names of men, women, and minors, to be kept separate. (See 
pages 79 and 80.) 

On the twentieth page from the last of the general register begin the 
record of representative petitions to Congress. Leave the next three pages 
for continuing the record. Use the following form : 

NO. 3. 

Record of Representative Petitions to Congress. 

(Under "Purpose of Assemblage," state whether regular weekly or 
monthly meeting, annual convention or conference, etc.) 

»°™°fOr g anit a tio n .\g;P™°J e \ R D e $J on \Me m l,ers h ip. \»$*£ \ Secretary. 

On the sixteenth page from the last of the general register begin the 
record of public discussions. Use the fifteenth and sixteenth pages from 
the end for recording sermons advocating the Amendment, and the next five 
pages for recording addresses in advocacy of it. Use the following page for 
recording anti N. P. A. sermons, and the next two pages for recording anti 
N. P. A. addresses. The form of keeping this record is given on page 89. 

On the sixth page from the last of the general register begin the record 
of press work, continuing the record on the next three pages. The form of 
keeping this record is given on page 91. 

Use the two last pages of the general register for the record of distribu- 
tion of literature. The form of keeping this record is given on page 92. 

Have the writing in a bold, round hand so as to be easily read. Rule 
with red ink. 

In changing the limits of canvassing districts, transfer names of Na- 
tional Constitutional Prohibitionists from one general register to that of 
another, as the changed limits may make necessary. Draw a light red line 
through names to be erased on account of transference. Under "Remarks/* 
whether names are erased or added, write, using red ink : Transferred on 
account of changed limits of canvassing district. 9 

The canvassing registers of committeemen are to be left with the secre- 
tary of the committee on the first Monday of every month. From these 
the secretary will copy the names of National Constitutional Prohibitionists 
enrolled during the month. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 77 

The secretary should return the canvassing registers to the several com- 
mitteemen on the following Wednesday, thus retaining them but two days. 
The work of committeemen being suspended during the time they are with- 
held, they ought not to be kept for a longer period. 

On the first Monday of every month the sub-committee on public dis- 
cussions and press work, should report to the secretary the work done in 
these branches of the canvass during the month, for recording in the general 
register. 

The sub-committee on public discussions and press work should have ac- 
cess weekly to the general register to glean therefrom facts of interest to the 
public growing out of the canvass, for reporting to the press. 

Don't include in reports, names marked "removed," "deceased," or 
"name withdrawn." 

Number of names enrolled and on popular petitions forwarded to 
Congress, or State Legislature, should tally in reports. Ascertain monthly 
from committeemen, when they leave their canvassing registers, that the 
names on petitions and in canvassing registers are alike. It is expected 
that canvassing registers will not be left with the secretary until they are 
alike. 

To Individual Members of N. P. A. Committees for L,ocai, 
Work. — The first requisite is a canvassing register, properly ruled, for re- 
cording the work done by you. It should be furnished by the committee 
and remain the property of the committee. 

The ruling should be done by the secretary of the committee, to insure 
uniformity. 

In ruling, forms No. 2 and No. 4 are to be used. Your names should ap- 
pear on the cover of your respective canvassing registers, instead of in the 
space designated under form No. 4. Otherwise insert in canvassing reg- 
isters as given in the form. 

In registering names of National Constitutional Prohibitionists, enroll 
no one not a resident of your canvassing district. 

Each person is to be registered but once, in the same canvassing district, 
during the entire campaign. Should a person become registered twice, 
erase one of the signatures by drawing a light red line through it. Under 
"remarks " write the word duplicated, using red ink. 

In taking names, caution each person against enrolling again in that 
canvassing district. At the same time request the person, if he or she 
should remove to another canvassing district before the end of the cam- 
paign, to register therein in order to be counted, as the registration in the 
canvassing district removed from will be erased. 

After taking the name of a person who has registered in another can- 
vassing district and removed therefrom, notify the secretary of the canvass- 
ing district where the former registration took place of the new registration. 
If you do not know the name of the secretary, address : Secretary of the 
N. P. A. Committee for Local Work. Secure the name of a prominent 



78 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

Prohibitionist residing at the place the person removed from to send the let- 
ter in care of. 

Leave your canvassing register with the secretary of the committee on 
the first Monday of every month for his or her use in copying names of 
National Constitutional Prohibitionists secured during the month. 

Before depositing your canvassing register with the secretary, as directed 
above, compare the names of National Constitutional Prohibitionists regis- 
tered therein, secured during the month, with the names appearing on the 
popular petitions to Congress, secured also during the month. The names 
on the two petitions — one for the Senate q>nd the other for the House of 
Representatives — and in the canvassing register, should tally, one with the 
other. If they do not, have the necessary corrections made. Make known 
to the secretary that they tally . 

The secretary is directed to return your canvassing register on the fol- 
lowing Wednesday, thus retaining it but two days. 

To Sub-committees on Public Discussions and Press Work. — 
You are to have charge of these two branches of the work. For specific 
directions and forms of reports, look under their respective headings. 

On the first Monday of every month make a report to the secretary, of 
work done during the month in these branches, for insertion in the general 
register. 

The secretary is directed to give you access weekly to the general regis- 
ter, for gleaning therefrom facts of interest to the public, growing out of 
the canvass, to report to the press. 



REGISTERING NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITIONISTS. 

The registering of National Constitutional Prohibitionists is the basis 
of the canvass. All the other parts either depend upon, or are to subserve 
this. What is wanted is reliable information as to the number of advocates 
of the Amendment. And when it has been shown that a majority of 
citizens of the United States favor proposal and ratification of the Amend- 
ment, it will be proposed and ratified. National and State legislators will 
promptly respond to the expressed wishes of a major part of their constitu- 
ency. To do otherwise would result, as soon as possible, in relegating them 
into private life, and the election, in their stead, of truer representatives. 

Hence, this branch of the canvass especially should be studied care- 
fully and carried out with conscientious fidelity. 

There should be given to each man, woman, or minor over sixteen, 
opposed to the Amendment, some of the National Prohibitory Amendment 
leaflets, or other Prohibition literature, answering the objection, or objec- 
tions, made. Some will object not to National Constitutional Prohibition in 
particular, but to prohibition in general. To such persons an assortment of 
the general prohibition literature should be handed, in addition to that 



National Prohibitory A?)ie?idme?it Guide. 79 

specially prepared for this canvass. After awhile, interview each one again. 
Keep this up until conversion takes place or the campaign is ended. 

The registering of National Constitutional Prohibitionists will be very 
laborious, especially so in large cities. If, in any canvassing district, com- 
mitteemen are unable to make a thorough canvass in person, or by free 
help, arrangements should be made for hiring competent Prohibitionists to 
assist them. 

Below are given the forms for the registration. In connection with 
these, study carefully the " General Directions to N. P. A. Committees for 
Local Work," beginning on page 75; also " How to Use the Petitions " in 
Congressional petition work, beginning on page 82. 

NO. 4. 
Form of Registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists. 
National Constitutional Prohibitionists of 

MEN. 

We, the undersigned, hereby declare ourselves in favor of, and that we 
will petition for, proposal by Congress and ratification by our State Legisla- 
ture of an amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing, 

First. — That the manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation 
and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage shall be forever prohibited in 
the United States and in every place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Second. — That Congress shall enforce this article by all needful legis- 
lation. 

(Let Rep. stand for Republican, Dem. for Democrat, Pro. for Prohibi- 
tionist, etc. Revise as party relation changes. Under " Remarks " make 
the following record as the case may require, using red ink : Removed, De- 
ceased, or Name withdrawn, with date of withdrawal. Through the name 
draw a light red line. Opposite names transferred from list of minors write 
in red the word Transferred. ) 

Name. signature Occupations Politics. Committeeman. Remarks. 

NO. 4. — Continued. 
Form of Registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists. 

National Constitutional Prohibitionists of 

women. 

We, the undersigned, hereby declare ourselves in favor of, and that we 
will petition for, proposal by Congress and ratification by our State Legisla- 
ture of an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, providing, 

First. — That the manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation 
and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage, shall be forever prohibited in 
the United States and in every place subject to their jurisdiction. 



80 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide, 

Second. — That Congress shall enforce this article by all needful legisla- 
tion. 

(Let Rep. stand for Republican, Dem. for Democrat, Pro. for Prohibi- 
tionist, etc. Revise as party relation changes. Under " Remarks " make the 
following record as the case may require, using red ink : Removed, De-_ 
ceased, or Name withdrawn with date of withdrawal. Through the name 
draw a light red line. Opposite names transferred from list of minors write 
in red the worl Transferred.) 



Name. I ^^nature Occupation. I Politics. Committeeman. Remarks. 

NO. 4. — Continued. 
Form of Registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists. 
National Constitutional Prohibitionists of 

MINORS OVER SIXTEEN. 

We, the undersigned, hereby declare ourselves in favor of, and that we 
will petition for, proposal by Congress and ratification by our State Legisla- 
ture of an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, providing, 

First. — That the manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation 
and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage, shall be forever prohibited in 
the United States and in every place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Second. — That Congress shall enforce this article by all needful legisla- 
tion. 

(Let Rep. stand for Republican, Dem. for Democrat, Pro. for Prohibi- 
tionist, etc. Revise as party relation changes. Under " Remarks " make 
the following record as the case may require, using red ink : Removed, De- 
ceased, or Name withdrawn, with date of withdrawal. Through the name 
draw a light red line. As minors become of age transfer their names to the 
proper adult list and write in red opposite the transferred name the word 
Transferred. Also draw a light red line through the name.) 

Name. I ff^ture I Age - i Politics - I Committeeman. I Remarks. 



CONGRESSIONAL PETITION WORK. 

NO. 5. 

Form of Popular Petitions. 

petition 

for proposal of a 

national prohibitory amendment. 

(Circulated by committee composed of representatives of the several 

Prohibition organizations in the of , 

viz.: W. C. T. U., ) 



(tonal Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 81 

To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 

States of America : 

We, the undersigned, citizens of count}- of t 

State (or Territory ) of earnestly pray that an 

Amendment to the Constitution of the United States be proposed to the States 
for ratification, providing. 

First. — That the manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation 
and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage, shall be forever prohibited in 
the United States and in every place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Second. — That Congress shall enforce this article by all needful legisla- 
tion. 

Each signer will please write in designated place the word voter or non- 
voter as the case may be ; also politics and occupation. Signatures of minors 
over sixteen are desired. ) 

>ne. | Voter or non-voter . \ Politics. Occupation. 

NO. 6. 

Form of Representative Petitions. 

petition 

for proposal of a 

national prohibitory amendment. 

Procured by committee composed of representatives of the several Pro- 
hibition organizations in the of , 

viz.: W. C. T. U., ) 

To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 

States of America : 

The in assembled, 

held in , on the day of 

iS — , numbering (or representing) members, 

adopted the following resolution and directed the presiding officer and secre- 
tary to sign and transmit it to Congress, viz. : 

Resolved, That we earnestly pray Congress to propose to the States for 
ratification an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, pro- 
viding. 

First. — That the manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation 
and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage, shall be forever prohibited in 
the United States and in every- place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Second. — That Congress shall enforce this article by all needful legisla- 
tion. 

President (or chairman ). 

Secretarv. 



$2 National Prohibitojy Amendment Guide. 

How to Use the Petitions. 

First. — Have the number you will be likely to require of popular peti- 
tions, either printed or plainly written. The paper attached for signatures 
should be neatly ruled and firmly pasted, matching the petition in width. 
Foolscap paper is a convenient width. 

Representative petitions may be written at the time needed for use. 

Second. — Use only ink or indelible pencils for writing signatures. 

Third. — The signature of each person is desired on two petitions— one 
for the Senate, the other for the House of Representatives. One will not do 
for both bodies, as petitions are permanently retained when presented in 
either body. Do not copy names. It is against the rules of Congress to re- 
ceive memorials or petitions containing copied names. 

Canvassers may write the names of persons requesting them so to do. 

Married women should sign their own given names. 

Fourth. — Care should be taken to have recorded in the designated place 
on popular petitions after every name whether the signature is that of a 
voter or non-voter. . The importance of this will be readily seen. Some 
women are voters, as in Wyoming ; and others are likely soon to have full 
suffrage conferred upon them, as in Kansas. 

Only when agreeable to the wishes of the signer need the occupa- 
tion be given. It is hoped, however, that all signers will be willing to help 
to complete this very valuable part of the record. Register as home-keepers 
all women who are heads of families either alone or jointly with their hus- 
bands, and mainly employed with home duties. A woman hired to take 
charge of a house is not a home-keeper but a housekeeper. Register as as- 
sistant home-keeper, a grown daughter living at home and employed mainly 
in caring for the home. When she has full charge, she is the home-keeper. 
Register the hired house help as cook, chambermaid, general house work, 
etc., as the case may be. 

Fifth. — Persons may be engaged to assist committeemen in canvassing, 
hut please bear in mind that a great deal depends upon the pleasing manner, 
the tact, the intelligence of those seeking to gain names to the petition. An 
apathetic person, one that easily antagonizes others, or one ignorant of the 
■subject of the petition, will only injure the cause. 

Sixth. — To be able to plead intelligently, each canvasser should be pos- 
sessed with the facts and reasons contained in the National Prohibitory 
Amendment Guide. While canvassing, have a copy at hand. 

Seventh. — Circulation of popular petitions for signatures just before the 
adjournment of Prohibition meetings is not recommended. Usually these 
meetings are held too long, and the audience ought not to be asked to re- 
main longer. Besides, time for calm reflection after the stirring appeals 
should be gi^en. But signatures of those known to be in favor of National 
Prohibition may be obtained by canvassers going quietly and unobtrusively 
to work while the audience is gathering ; and National Prohibitionists of the 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 83 

canvassing district not enrolled should be requested to remain and register 
after adjournment. 

It is expected that the main part of the work will be done by personal 
appeals made at the home, or place of business, of persons sought to be 
reached. This way of working gives those opposed to the amendment an 
opportunity of explaining their opposition, and the canvasser a chance to 
meet the objections offered, by oral and written argument. 

Bear constantly in mind that each name is to be affixed not onl> to two 
of the petition blanks, but, also, to the canvassing register. Unless the can- 
vasser exercises the closest watchfulness, in moments of excitement one of 
these signatures will be apt to be omitted, necessitating extra labor. 

While registering, each person should be cautioned against enrolling 
again, as the one enrollment is for the entire campaign. 

Eighth. — Committees should secure, or make every effort to secure, the 
adoption of the resolution embraced in the representative petition, (see 
page 81) by every association, or convention of clergymen, teachers, physi- 
cians, labor organizations, Sabbath-schools, Christian Endeavor societies, 
etc., which shall meet in their respective canvassing districts before proposal 
of the amendment. Also by each Prohibition organization once a year. 

A preamble to the resolution may be added by bodies so desiring. A 
preamble would convert the petition into a memorial. 

A sub-committee may be deputed to secure representative petitions. 
Should one be deputed, each petition secured should be immediately 
reported to the secretary of the committee, so that due record may be made 
of it in the general register. 

Ninth. — The annual date for forwarding petitions to the National Capi- 
tal is the second Monday in December, that is, one week from the day on 
which Congress assembles yearly. On the first Thursday after the first Mon- 
day in December of each year, the committee, or sub-committee having this 
part of the work in charge, should collect the petitions from the several N. 
P. A. committeemen of the canvassing district and paste them together, 
clipping off the heads of all except one of each set, thus making two long 
petitions — one to be presented in the Senate and the other in the House of 
Representatives. 

Before receiving the petitions, carefully compare each one with the can- 
vassing register of the committeeman who circulated it. If an omission 
occurs in either set of petitions, or any correction is needed, have it attended 
to. The names of National Constitutional Prohibitionists in the canvassing 
register and on each of the two sets of petitions, should tally. If they do 
not, it is the duty of the committeeman to complete the work at once. 

Afterwards, transmit petitions from time to time when a score or more 
additional names are secured, until the adjournment of Congress for the 



84 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

session. Retain names secured after Congress adjourns for transmitting on 
the next second Monday in December. 

Tenth. — A rule of the United States Senate provides that "every peti- 
tion or memorial shall be signed by the petitioner or memorialist and have 
indorsed thereon a brief statement of its contents." The rules of the House 
of Representatives contain a similar provision. To conform : ist. Send 
only original signatures— no copied names. 2nd. Send the representa- 
tive petitions without indorsement to be properly indorsed by the chairman 
of the N. P. A. Committee for Congressional work. For the indorsement 
on each popular petition use the subjoined form, No. 7, writing VERY 
PLAINLY at the top of the folded petition, and filling blank spaces. (The 
next form, No. 8, gives the appearance of a properly indorsed popular peti- 
tion.) 

Eleventh. — When the petitions are ready to be forwarded, send them 
addressed in the following manner, viz. • 

Chairman N. P. A. Committee for Congressional Work, 

Washington , D. C. 

Word will be left at the Washington postoffice as to where to deliver 
mail matter addressed as above. 

The Chairman of the N. P. A. Committee for Congressional work will 
have a record made of the petitions for use in the campaign. The two from 
each canvassing district will then be handed — one to a Senator from the 
State, and the other to the Member of the House of Representatives from 
the Congressional District in which the canvassing district is situated. Peti- 
tions from the Territories, intended for the Senate, will be handed for pre- 
senting to Senators from States adjoining the respective Territories, or to 
the Chairman of the Committee to which the petitions will be referred. 
Those for the House of Representatives will be handed to the Delegate 
from the Territory the petitions are from. 

J^gp" Letter postage will be required to send the petitions. 

NO. 7. 

Form of Indorsement on Popular Petitions. 

Petition of . , , . citizens ( voters and non-voters), of ... . 

, county of . . . . . „ , State (or Territory) of , 

praying for proposal of an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States providing that " the manufacture, importation, exportation, transpor- 
tation and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage shall be forever pro- 
hibited in the United States and in every place subject to their jurisdiction ", 
and "that Congress shall enforce this article by all needful legislation." 



Nitional Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 85 

NO. S. 

Appearance of Properly Indorsed Popular Petition. 

(At least two inches of space must be left at the bottom of the indorse- 
ment for the signature of the Congressman who presents the petition in 
Congress, and for the name of the Committee to which it is to be referred. ) 



dJ etitcon od %24 cote- ef id (c?/ r-oten.j 
afia 2-tQ /zon= voters), oJ' t/ie lonst 
I r-o. ci/ia ol ^Cttzcoui. coiuvtu of 

^Cct/2 caste**-, 6€€bCe od \yjeof<-a-dtca, Jbncvu- 
ifi a J 'a/< Jbnojb-o&Osl <jd ctn anxenct/rzent 
to the l ofi.jtc tutc-on oJ- t/tie tlfittwl 

Estates. hno>Mcluia that the /rzafin- 
J a c tu re. i/?zh on ta ti on. e x/j onta ti on . 
trans hontati of 1 aficl sale o.l all alco= 
holcc Itaitons clA a be^era-ae a hat I he 
Xof<-ev-en hno/zi beted in the ^llfiztecl 

•^ ta te.j ati cl in t +e /v/ h /a c e .jii ate c t to 
them /iini.j diction. afzel l/zat ' ca/z^ 
a. '/H.j. j .j/zall etidlor-ce ttzes tz^ttc/le tti 
all fieedttcl lcai.ilatt>ofi. 



86 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS. 

It is expected hereafter that the subject of National Constitutional Pro- 
hibition will enter largely into all prohibition addresses, by whomsoever 
made. 

It is expected, also, that all clergymen who believe in National Consti- 
tutional Prohibition will advocate it frequently in both pulpit and prayer- 
meeting. If they do not speak on the subject as often as desired, the 
sub-committee having charge of this branch of the work, should ask for 
more frequent reference. 

Said sub-committee, also, should ask each speaker on prohibition to 
dwell on this phase ot the question. 

The committee should supply every clergyman of the canvassing dis- 
trict with a copy of the National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. Also with 
copies of the several kinds of leaflets especially prepared for this canvass. 
These leaflets state the various reasons for, and answer the common objec- 
tions against National Constitutional Prohibition. 

The campaign in each canvassing district should begin with a rousing 
public meeting in church or hall, which should be beautifully decorated for 
the occasion. The meeting should be addressed by the General Officers of 
the Prohibition organizations of the canvassing district ; also by clergymen 
and other prominent Prohibitionists, as many as the allotted time will allow. 
The chairman of the committee should preside and its secretary should act 
as secretary of the meeting. The subjoined rhumb of the canvass should be 
read by either the chairman or secretary, immediately following the opening 
exercises. Call the attention of persons engaged to address the meeting to 
this resume, so that the scope of the canvass may be fully appreciated by 
each speaker. 

It is a part of the work of the sub-committee on public discussions and 
press work to keep a record of sermons and addresses which advocate, and, 
also, of those which oppose the Amendment, for incorporation into monthly 
and semi-annual reports. In keeping such record the subj oined form is to 
be used. 

Resume of the Canvass. 

The object of the canvass is to obtain an Amendment to the National 
Constitution, forever prohibiting in the United * States, and in everyplace 
subject to their jurisdiction, the manufacture, importation, exportation, 
transportation and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage. 

The plan of canvass is contained in the National Prohibitory Amend- 
ment Guide. Its main feature is to register National Constitutional Prohibi- 
tionists and to proclaim their number from time to time, as the work 
progresses, to the law-makers and people in general. At present there is no 
way of determining their numerical strength. 

It is hoped that the footings of this register, in the near future, will indi- 
cate that one-half of the adult people of the United States have enlisted in 



Hanoi Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 87 

the war for the extermination of the traffic in alcoholic beverages, and desire 
that the Constitution shall express the National will on the subject. When 
this is so shown, it is believed that the amendment will be proposed and 
ratified. 

The canvassing is to be carried on by three classes of National Prohibi- 
tory Amendment committees, composed of representatives of the various 
Prohibition organizations of the United States, viz. : 

1. National Prohibitory Amendment Committees for local work. 

2. National Prohibitory Amendment Committee for Congressional 
work. 

3. National Prohibitory Amendment Committees for State legislative 
work. 

The representatives on the two last-named committees are to consist of 
the General Officers of the National or State Prohibition societies, the Gen- 
eral Officers of the National or State Executive Committee of the Prohibi- 
tion party, and the National or State W. C. T. U. Superintendent of Legisla- 
tion and Petitions. 

The local canvassing is to be carried on m canvassing districts, each 
consisting of one school district, except in large cities, where the school dis- 
trict may be divided into several canvassing districts. 

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union having made this Amend- 
ment a special line of work ; having county and district as w T ell as local and 
State organizations ttirough which to carry it on ; and having a suitable de- 
partment, that of Legislation and Petitions, ready to do its bidding, — the 
initiatory- steps lor the organization of these committees and the responsi- 
bility for executing a part of the system of official reporting are committed 
to its care. 

The canvass is to be carried on simultaneously throughout the entire 
country. 

Committee work is classed under two general heads, viz. : 
First— Before proposal of the Amendment. 
Second — After proposal of the Amendment. 

Under the first general head the work is subdivided into seven distinct 
branches, the first six to be carried on by local committees and the seventh 
by the National Committee, viz. : 

Registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists. 
Congressional petition work. 
Public discussions. 
Press work. 

Distribution of literature. 

Reporting local work to Prohibition organizations. 
Congressional canvassing and reports. 
Under the second general head the work is subdivided into two distinct 
branches, the first to be carried on by the 'ocal committees and the second 



88 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

by the State committees, the former local work as far as applicable being 
continued, viz.: 

i. State legislative petition work. 

2. State legislative canvassing. 

The expenses of N. P. A. committees for local work are to be met by 
contributions to the committees from the Prohibition organizations repre- 
sented on them, by contributions from other sources, and by the efforts of 
committees put forth in various ways. 

In similar ways, the expenses of the other committees are to be borne. 

Prohibition work already being done, is not to be duplicated. 

Under "Public Discussions," the plan is not to engage speakers and 
arrange for meetings, as that work is being done by the several Prohibition 
organizations represented on committees, but to request each speaker on 
prohibition to dwell on the National phase, to ask clergymen for frequent 
reference, and to keep a record of sermons and addresses which advocate, 
and of those which oppose, this phase. The meeting beginning the canvass 
is under the auspices of the committee of the canvassing district. 

Under " Press Work," facts of general interest growing out of the can- 
vass are to be gleaned and published from week to week, the part of meet- 
ings and sermons advocating National Prohibition to be specially reported. 
The plan includes also the securing inserted in the lccal press of pointed 
paragraphs and articles on National Prohibition. 

National Prohibitory Amendment leaflets, covering the various reasons 
for, and answering common objections against, this method of outlawing 
the poisonous drink traffic, are to be distributed freely. 

The system of official reporting provides for monthly and semi-annual 
reports from N. P. A. committees for local work, and for annual reports 
from the N. P A. committee for Congressional work. It also provides for 
reports of the progress of the canvass, after proposal of the Amendment, 
from N. P. A. committees for State legislative work. These reports are to 
be made to the several Prohibition organizations represented on the respec- 
tive committees. The press is to be furnished with a resume of each report. 

In registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists, all are to sub- 
scribe to a pledge declaring themselves in favor of the Amendment, and that 
they will petition for its proposal by Congress and ratification by their 
respective State Legislatures. At the time of this registration the petitions 
to Congress are to be signed. Adults and minors over sixteen are to be en- 
rolled. Names of voters and non-voters are to be kept separate. The one 
registration is to answer for the entire campaign — deaths, removals from the 
canvassing district, and withdrawal of names, being duly noted. No name 
is to appear on petitions to Congress not first appearing subscribed in a can- 
vassing register, for retention by the committee. 



National Prohibitory Ameyidment Guide. 89 

NO. 9. 

Record of Public Discussions. 

advocating national constitutional prohibition. 

Sermons. 

(When the subject of the sermon is National Constitutional Prohibition, 
under ' ' Remarks ' ' write the words specially advocated. When unmarked, 
it will be understood that the subject was briefly advocated in the sermon.) 

Clergymen. \ Denomination. \ Date. \ Remarks. 

Addresses. 

(If the general subject of Prohibition received the main treatment and 
National Constitutional Prohibition but a small part, under ' ' Remarks ' ' 
write the words briefly advocated. If, on the other hand, National Constitu- 
tional Prohibition received the main treatment, under "Remarks" write 
the words specially advocated. ) 

Speaker. \ Residence. \ Date. \ Who engaged. \ Remarks. 

OPPOSING NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 

Sermons. 

(When the subject of the sermon is Anti-National Constitutional Pro- 
hibition, under "Remarks" write the words specially opposed. When un- 
marked, it will be understood that the anti-treatment was brief.} 

Clergymen. \ Denomination. \ Date. \ Remarks. 

Addresses. 

(If the general subject of prohibition received the main opposition, and 
National Constitutional Prohibition but a small part, under "Remarks" 
write the words briefly opposed. If, on the other hand, this phase received 
the main opposition, under " Remarks" write the words mainly opposed.) 

Speaker. \ Residence. \ Date. \ Who engaged. | Remarks. 



PRESS WORK. 



The importance of this phase of the canvass should be fully appreciated 
and faithfully executed. All facts of general interest growing out of the 
work should be gleaned and published from week to week. Bear constantly 
in mind that there is a large reading public which' is usually not a part of the 
listening public. Information causes agitation. Agitation will result in 
converts to our cause. To convert is our aim. Therefore agitate as much 
as possible through the public print. 



90 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

Sub- committees on public discussions and press work should promptly 
report the organization of their respective N. P. A. Committees, stating 
what Prohibition organizations are represented, and b)' whom. 

They should write up the meeting opening the campaign in their respect- 
ive canvassing districts. In doing so^ describe how the church or hall was 
decorated for the occasion. Tell who the speakers were and whom they 
represented. Record the point most emphasized by each. Speak of the 
attendance and interest manifested. 

They should write up the part advocating the Amendment of all other 
prohibition meetings and of all sermons. In doing so, state under whose 
auspices held, or the denomination of the clergyman. Give the gist of 
what was said in each case. 

They should send a copy of each one of these reports to the press of the 
canvassing district, or county, and to the State organs of Prohibition organ- 
izations. 

The subject written up by the regular newspaper reporters will be pre- 
sented in connection with the balance of their report. What we want is to 
have that part of the meeting or sermon reported by itself as well. This 
belongs to the sub-committee on public discussions and press work, to do. 
Be brief. Let most of the space be occupied in recording what was said. 
Considerable information may be imparted in one hundred words if well 
boiled down. Brief articles are usually read. Lengthy ones are not apt to 
be, by the average reader, unless on a subject of special interest. In boiling 
down, don't strip the facts of an attractive garb. Make a pleasing pen pict- 
ure of the fact told, the thought imparted. 

A carefully written article should quickly follow each anti.N. P. A. 
sermon or address, answering the objections offered. Search the National 
Prohibitory Amendment Guide, and the series of leaflets prepared for the 
canvass, for answers to the objections. 

Sub-committees should secure published pointed paragraphs and articles 
on National Constitutional Prohibition as often as possible. A large num- 
ber of these may be selected from the National Prohibitory Amendment 
Guide, and from the series of leaflets especially prepared for the canvass. 
Others may be selected from mauy sources,, especially from prohibition 
newspapers. 

They should secure published, also, attractively written, resumes of 
official reports. 

These sub-committees should especially become familiar with the " Gen- 
eral directions to N. P. A. committees for local work," beginning on page 75. 

No record is to be made of matter secured published in Religious and 
Prohibition party newspapers. 

In recording matter secured published in secular newspapers, other 
than Prohibition party organs, make use of the following form. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 9 1 

NO. 10. 

Record of Press Work. 

(Under the words " kind of matter secured published," write selected 
matter, canvass gleanings, or report resume, as the case may be. Under the 
term " canvass gleanings " include reports of public discussions. Under 
"Remarks," more specific explanation may be given. Matter secured 
published in Religious and Prohibition party newspapers, is not to be 
recorded.) 

Name of ne W spaper.\ Politics. | ^^S. | %%&&*. | *«■"*■ 



DISTRIBUTION OF LITERATURE. 

A line of National Prohibitory Amendment leaflets will be kept for sale, 
during the canvass, by the Woman's Temperance Publication Association, 
161 La Salle Street, Chicago, Illinois. An assorted package maybe had for 
ten cents. 

These leaflets will cover the various reasons for, and answer the com- 
mon objections against, National Constitutional Prohibition. 

For reasons for prohibition per se, and answers to the " high license " 
and " local option " policies, etc., make use of other lines of prohibition 
leaflets. Such lines are kept for sale by publishers of Prohibition literature, 
especially the Woman's Temperance Publication Association, 161 La Salle 
Street, Chicago ; the National Temperance Society and Publication House, 58 
Reade Street, New York ; Funk & Wagnalls, 18 and 20 Astor Place, New 
York ; Center-Lever Co., 123 La Salle Street, Chicago, and the National 
Committee of the Prohibition party, 32 East 14th Street, New York. Send 
to these for sample copies. Inclose a two-cent stamp. 

The committee should keep a supply of the National Prohibitory Amend- 
ment leaflets always on hand for distribution. We repeat : ' ' Bear constantly 
in mind that there is a large reading public which is usually not a part of 
the listening public." 

Some of each number of the N. P. A. leaflets should be carried by per- 
sons canvassing for names. Copies should be handed to each objector 
which meet the particular objections offered. This is the main use to be 
made of these leaflets. They should be distributed, also, in the usual ways. 
Especially should they be kept with other literature in Prohibition racks, 
and in street cars and other public conveyances of a local character 
whenever permission can be obtained for doing so. The committees of the 
several canvassing districts of a city should combine their efforts in secur- 
ing permission and supplying public conveyances. Distribute at the close 
of prohibition and other meetings as the judgment of the committee may 
dictate. 



92 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

How to keep account of distribution of literature, is given in the fol- 
lowing form. This account is to be kept by secretaries of committees only. 

NO. ii. 

Account oe Distribution of Literature. 

(Under "how distributed," state the quantity distributed through N. P. 
A. canvassers, prohibition racks and public conveyances, at the close of 
meetings, etc.) 

Kin d of Literature. | ^H^lte. | £fZi. I /SSSS. I £&L | ^Distribute! 



REPORTING LOCAL WORK TO PROHIBITION ORGANIZATIONS. 

The achievements of N. P. A. committees for local work are to be re- 
ported monthly and semi-annually to Prohibition organizations. 

These reports are to be made out by the secretary of the respective 
committees, and are to be signed by the chairman and secretary. 

A copy of monthly reports is to be handed to each member of the local 
committee. 

A copy of semi-annual reports is to be furnished each member of the 
three classes of committees. 

Bach member of local committees is to have a report book to paste 
reports into. 

Report books, prepared for use, are to be furnished members by the 
committee. They are to be divided into four parts. The first part is for the 
reception of the monthly reports ; the second, the semi-annual reports ; the 
third, the yearly reports of the N. P. A. committee for Congressional work ; 
and the fourth part is for the reception of the reports, after proposal of the 
Amendment, of N. P. A. committees for State legislative work. 

The second part of report books is to be sub-divided into five parts. 
The first sub-division is for the semi-annual report of the canvassing dis- 
trict ; the second, for that of the several canvassing districts of the county 
converted into a county report ; the third, for that of the canvassing dis- 
tricts of the District converted into a District report ; the fourth, for that of 
the canvassing districts of the State or Territory, converted into a State or 
Territorial report ; and the fifth sub-division for that of the canvassing dis- 
tricts of the United States converted into a National report. 

These report books are to remain the property of the committee to the 
end of the canvass, when they may be otherwise disposed of. As the mem- 
bership changes, report books are to be turned over to successors in office. 

Representatives of the several organizations represented on local com- 
mittees should take turn in presenting reports to their respective organi- 
zations. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 93 

Through the various reports duly presented, local, State, and National 
Prohibition organizations of the country will be kept thoroughly posted in 
regard to the progress of the canvass. 

Monthly Reports. 

Monthly reports are to embrace the work done by N. P. A. committees 
for local work during the month, beginning on the first Monday of each 
month . 

Monthly reports for the respective months next preceding semi-annual 
reports, may be omitted at the option of committees. 

These reports are to be made out by the secretary of the committee on 
the first Thursday after the first Monday of each month. That is, they are 
to be made out immediately following the copying into the general register 
from canvassing registers and the reports of sub-committees. 

Below is given the form of monthly reports. Printed blanks for these 
reports will be kept for sale, during the canvass, by the Woman's Temper- 
ance Publication Association, 161 L,a Salle Street, Chicago, Illinois. 

NO. 12. 

Form of Monthly Reports. 

Report of work done by the N. P. A. committee for local work of 

during the month ending 

the first Monday in , 18 — . 

(N. C. P. stands for National Constitutional Prohibition or Prohibitionists. Omit lines 
containing the words " to date " in the first report.) 

No 

N. C. P. enrolled during the month voters non-voters 

N. C. P enrolled to date voters non- voters 

N. C. P. who have signed popular petitions to 

Congress during the month voters non-voters 

N. C. P. who have signed popular petitions to 

Congress to date voters non-voters 

Representative petitions to Congress secured during the month aggregate 

Representative petitions to Congress to date aggregate 

Sermons specially advocating N C. P during the month 

Sermons specially advocating N C P. to date .' 

Sermons brieflv advocating N C. P. during the month 

Sermons briefly advocating N. C. P. to date 

Addresses specially advocating N. C. P. during the month 

Addresses specially advocating N. C. P. to date • 

Addresses briefly advocating N. C. P. during the month ... 

Addresses briefly advocating N. C. P. to date 

Sermons specially opposing N. C. P. during the month • • , 

Sermons specially opposing N. C. P. to date 

Sermons briefly opposing N. C. P. during the month 

Sermons briefly opposing N. C. P. to date 

Addresses mainly opposing N. C. P. during the month 

Addresses mainly opposing N. C. P. to date 



94 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

Addresses briefly opposing N. C. P. during the month 

Addresses briefly opposing N. C. P. to date 

N. C. P. selected matter .... canvass gleanings .... and report resumes .... secured 
published in newspapers other than Religious and Prohibition organs, during the 
month, Rep Dem . . . . Ind . . . . Neu. . . .. other . . . 

N. C. P. selected matter canvass gleanings and report resumes secured 

published in newspapers, other than Religious and Prohibition party organs, to date, 
Rep .... Dem .... Ind .... Neu other .... 

Pages of Prohibition literature distributed during the month, through N. P. A. canvassers 
.... racks and public conveyances .... at close of meetings . . . otherwise . . . 

Pages of Prohibition literature distributed to date, through N. P. A. canvassers racks 

and public conveyances at close of meetings .... otherwise .... 

Different occupations * of N. C. P represented to date, .... clergymen .... lawyers 
physicians .... editors .... publishers. . . . university or college professors . . . 
other teachers .... farmers .... gardeners. . . . merchants . . . carpenters . . . 
masons .... milliners. . . . dressmakers .... printers .... miners .... home- 
keepers house-help .... street car or railroad employes United States 

officials . . . State or Territorial officials . . . county officials .... precinct or town- 
ship officials .... city or town officials . . . school district officials .... other . . . 

Amount of money received during the month, contributed by local Prohibition organ- 
izations . . . , contributions from other sources. . . , through efforts of committee. . . 

Amount of money received to date, . . . contributed by local Prohibition organizations . . 
contributions from other sources . . . . through efforts of committee . . 

Amount of money expended during the month . .... 

Amount of money expended to date .... 

SUMMARY OF VOTERS (TO DATE)). 

N. C. P. Republicans 

N. C. P. Democrats 

N. C. P. Prohibitionists 

N. C. P. 

N. C. P. 

N. C. P. 

Total 

Voting population of the canvassing district 

Per cent, of known National Constitutional Prohibitionists to voting popula- 
tion of the canvassing district 

Semi-annuai, Reports. 

The first semi-annual report is to embrace the work done by N. P. A. 
committees for local work during the first six months of the canvass, begin- 
ning the first Monday in December, 1889, and ending the first Monday in 
June, 1890. 

The second is to embrace the work done the second six months of the 
canvass, beginning the first Monday in June, 1890, and ending the first 
Monday in December, 1890. 

The third is to embrace the work done the third six months of the can- 
vass, beginning the first Monday in December, 1890, and ending the first 
Monday in June, 1891. 



* Insert in the column simply the number of different occupations represented by Na- 
tional Constitutional Prohibitionists. The reading will make known the number secured 
in each class. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 95 

The fourth is to embrace the work done the fourth six months of the 
canvass, beginning the first Monday in June, 1891, and ending the first Mon- 
day in December, 1S91. 

The fifth is to embrace the work done the fifth six months of the can- 
vass, beginning the first Monday in December, 1891, and ending the first 
Monday in June, 1S92. 

And so on, if the Amendment should not be proposed by Congress to 
the States for ratification within two years and a half, as anticipated. 

Each report, after the first, is to contain a summary of former reports. 

These reports are to be made out by the respective secretaries of N. P. 
A. committees for local work between the first and second Mondays of June 
and December yearly. 

The respective secretaries are to send a copy of semi-annual reports to 
the County W. C. T. U. Superintendent of Legislation and Petitions. 
Should there be no such County Superintendent, the copy of semi-annual 
reports is to be sent to the State, or Territorial, W. C. T. U. Superintendent 
of Legislation and Petitions. 

The County W. C. T. U. Superintendent of Legislation and Petitions 
will compile the reports of the several N. P. A. committees for local work 
of the county and return the compiled report to the committees, a printed 
copy for each member. 

The County W. C. T. U. Superintendent of Legislation and Petitions 
will send a copy of the compiled report also to the District W. C. T. U. 
Superintendent of Legislation and Petitions, and to the State, or Territorial, 
W. C. T. U. Superintendent of Legislation and Petitions. 

The District W. C. T. U. Superintendent will convert the county reports 
of the District into a District report and return to the several County W C. 
T. U. Superintendents, who, in turn will send copies of the District report to 
the several N. P. A. committees for local work of their respective counties. 

The State, or Territorial, W. C. T. U. Superintendent of Legislation and 
Petitions will convert the county reports into a State, or Territorial, report 
and return to the several county W. C. T. U. Superintendents, who in turn, 
will send copies of the State, or Territorial, report to the several N. P. A. 
committees for local work of their respective counties. 

• Each State, or Territorial, W. C. T. U. Superintendent will send a copy 
of the State, or Territorial report also to the National W. C. T. U. Superin- 
tendent of Legislation and Petitions, and to each General Officer of the sev- 
eral State, or Territorial, Prohibition organizations. 

The National W. C. T. U. Superintendent will convert the State and 
Territorial reports into a National report, and return to the several State 
and Territorial W. C. T. U. Superintendents. She will, also, send a copy of 
the National report to each General Officer of the several National Prohibi- 
tion organizations. 

Each State, or Territorial, W. C. T. U. Superintendent will send copies 
of the National report to the several county W. C. T. U. Superintendents, 



g6 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

who, in turn, will send copies of the National report to the several N. P. A. 
committees for local work of their respective counties. 

The National, State, District and County W. C. T U. Superintendents 
will have the respective reports printed and will forward enough copies of 
each to supply down the line, so that a printed copy may be handed general 
officers of State Prohibition organizations, and to each member of N. P. A. 
committees for local work. 

Each county W. G. T. U. Superintendent in sending reports to the 
District and State, or Territorial, W. C. T. U. Superintendents, should state 
how many copies of the compiled reports will be needed to supply N. P. A. 
committees for local work of her county. And each State, or Territorial, 
W. C. T. U. Superintendent should advise the National W. C. T. U. Super- 
intendent as to the number of National reports it will take to supply one to 
each member of N. P. A. committees fbr local work and the general offi- 
cers of State Prohibition organizations, of her State, or Territory. 

Semi-annual reports of N. P. A. committees for local work, are to be 
forwarded to the W. C. T. U. Superintendent on the second Mondays of 
June and December. The third Mondays of these months the county 
reports are to be forwarded, and the district reports on the fourth Mondays. 
State or Territorial reports are to be forwarded on first Mondays of January 
and July, and National reports on first Mondays of February and August. 

When unable to forward reports at time stated, send them the earliest 
moment afterwards possible. Whenever sent, semi-annual reports will 
cover the work done during the six months ending the first Monday in June, 
or December, of each year. 

The form of semi-annual committee reports is given below. Printed 
blanks for these reports will be kept for sale, during the canvass, by the 
Woman's Temperance Publication Association, 161 La Salle Street, Chicago, 
Illinois. Printed blanks for County, District, State or National reports will 
not be kept by the W. T. P. A. For these reports make use of the form of 
semi-annual committee reports by changing them to meet the new require- 
ments. This may be done by pasting over the heading a proper one, either 
printed or written. Thus : 



County reports head : 

Report of work done by N. P. A. Committees for Local Work of county 

of . . . , State (or Territory) of , during 

the six months ending the first Monday in June (or December), 18 — . 

District reports head : 

Report of work done by N. P. A. Committees for Local Work of the 

District, State of , during 

the six months ending the first Monday in June (or December), 18 — . 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 97 

State reports head : 

Report of work done by N. P. A. Committees for Local Work of the 

State (or Territory ) of , during the six months ending 

the first Monday in June (or December), 18 — . 

The heading for National reports would undergo similar change. 

NO. 13. 
Form of Semi-annuae Committee Reports. 

Report of work done by the N. P. A. Committee for Local Work 

of , during the six months ending the 

first Monday in June (or December), 18—. 

(N. C. P. stands for National Constitutional Prohibition or Prohibi- 
tionists. Omit lines containing the words "since last report " in the first 
report. ) 

No. 

N. C. P. enrolled since last report, voters non-voters 

N. C. P. enrolled to date, voters non-voters 

N. C. P. who have signed popular petitions to Congress since last report, voters 

non-voters 

X. C. P. who have signed popular petitions to Congress to date, voters 

non-voters 

Representative petitions to Congress since last report aggregate 

Representative petitions to Congress to date aggregate 

Sermons specially advocating N. C. P. since last report • . . 

Sermons specially advocating N. C. P. to date . . . 

Sermons briefly advocating N. C. P. since last report 

Sermons briefly advocating N. C. P. to date 

Addresses specially advocating N. C. P. since last report 

Addresses specially advocating N. C. P. to date 

Addresses briefly advocating N. C. P. since last report 

Addresses briefly advocating N. C. P. to date 

Sermons specially opposing N. C. P. since last report 

Sermons specially opposing N. C. P. to date 

Sermons briefly opposing N. C. P. since last report 

Sermons briefly opposing N. C. P. to date 

Addresses mainly opposing N. C. P. since last report 

Addresses mainly opposing N. C. P. to date 

Addresses briefly opposing N. C. P. since last report 

Addresses briefly opposing N. C. P. to date . . " * 

N. C. P. selected matter .... canvass gleanings. . . . and report resumes .... secured 

published in newspapers other than Religious and Prohibition party organs, since 

last report, Rep .... Dem .... Ind .... Neu .... other .... 
N. C. P. selected matter .... canvass gleanings .... and report resumes .... secured 

published in newspapers other than Religious and Prohibition party organs, to date, 

Rep. . . • . Dem, . . . Ind . . . Neu .... other .... 
Pages of Prohibition literature distributed since last report, through N. P. A. canvassers 
. . . racks and public conveyances .... at close of meetings .... otherwise. . . . 
Pages of Prohibition literature distributed to date, through N. P. A. canvassers . . . racks 

and public conveyances .... at close of meetings .... otherwise .... 



98 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

Different occupations * of N. C. P. represented to date, clergymen .... lawyers .... 
physicians .... editors .... publishers . . . university or college professors . . . 

other teachers .... farmers .... gardeners merchants carpenters 

masons milliners dressmakers .... printers .... miners .... 

homekeepers .... house-help .... street car or railroad employes .... United 
States officials .... State or Territorial officials .... county officials pre- 
cinct or township officials .... city or town officials school district officials 

.... other .... 

Amount of moiey received since last report : Contributed by local Prohibition organiza- 
tions . . . ., contributions from other sources . . ., through efforts of committee . . 

Amount of money received to date : Contributed by local Prohibition organizations .... 
contributions from other sources . . . . , through efforts of committee .... 

Amount of money expended since last report .... 

Amount of money expended to date .... 

SUMMARY OF VOTERS (TO DATE). 

N. C. P. Republicans 

N. C. P. Democrats 

N. C. P. Prohibitionists , 

N. C. P. 

N. C. P. .* 

N. C. P. 

Total 

Voting population of the canvassing district 

Per cent, of known National Constitutional Prohibitionists to voting popula- 
tion of the canvassing district 



CONGRESSIONAL CANVASSING AND REPORTS. 

This branch of the work embodies : 

First. — Preparation. 
Second. — Performance . 
Third. — Annual Reports. 

Preparation.— This consists of getting ready to address annually the 
committee of each body having the Amendment referred to it, and to inter- 
view members of Congress, to the end that the Amendment shall be re- 
turned by the committees with a favorable report thereon, and, being sup- 
ported by two-thirds of both branches, shall be submitted by Congress to 
the several States for ratification. 

Performance.— This consists of addressing committees, interviewing 
members of Congress, and any other efforts which may be put forth in 
behalf of the Amendment. 

Annual Reports. — These, signed by the chairman and secretary, are 
to embrace an account of petitions and memorials forwarded to Congress 
by N. P. A. Committees for local work, results of efforts put forth by the 
N. P. A. Committee for Congressional work and money received and ex- 
pended. 



* Insert in the column simply the number of different occupations represented by Na- 
tional Constitutional Prohibitionists. The reading will make known the number secured 
in each class. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 99 

A copy of each annual report is to be furnished to individual members 
of the committee, to the General Officers of the several State and Territorial 
Prohibition organizations, and to committeemen of canvassing districts of 
the country. The same method is to be employed in reaching persons with 
these reports as in the case of National reports, given on page 95. 

Members of the N. P. A. Committee for Congressional work should 
provide themselves with report books similar to those local committeemen 
are to be furnished. 



AFTER PROPOSAL OF THE AMENDMENT. 

General Directions to N. P. A. Committees for State Legisla- 
tive Work. 

Initiatory steps for organizing these committees are given on page 74. 

Former local work, as far as applicable, is to be continued. In contin- 
uing any branch, the prescribed method is to be followed. 

The old general and canvassing registers should be continued in use, 
after proposal of the Amendment, if unused space will admit. 

Record-making, after proposal of the Amendment, will necessitate three 
changes being made in general registers. These are : First. The index 
is to page representative petitions to the State Legislature instead of to 
Congress. Second. The heading of form No. 3 is to become : Record of 
representative petitions to the State Legislature. Third. In registering 
National Constitutional Prohibitionists not already enrolled, form No. 14 is 
to be used instead of No. 4. 

In canvassing registers, also, form No. 14 will take the place of form 
No. 4, in registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists not already 
enrolled. 

The report books are to be continued in use. 

Below is given form No. 14 which takes the place of form No. 4. 

NO. 14. 
Form of Registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists. 
National Constitutional Prohibitionists of 

MEN. 

We, the undersigned, hereby declare ourselves in favor of, and that we 
will petition for, ratification by our State Legislature of the Amendment to 
the Constitution of the United States which has been proposed by Congress, 
providing for the prohibition of the manufacture, importation, exportation, 
transportation and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage. 

(Let Rep. stand for Republican, Dem. for Democrat, Pro. for Prohibi- 
tionist, etc. Revise as party relation changes. Under "Remarks" make 



ioo National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

the following record as the case may require, using red ink : Removed, De- 
ceased, or name withdrawn, with date of withdrawal. Through the name 
draw a light red line. Opposite names transferred from list of minors write 
in red the word Transferred.*) 

Name. \ Date of Signature. \ Occupation. \ Politics. \ Committeeman. \ Remarks. 

NO. 14. — Continued. 
Form of Registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists. 

National Constitutional Prohibitionists of 

women. 
(Continue as under form for "men.") 

NO. 14. — Continued. 
Form of Registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists. 

National Constitutional Prohibitionists of 

minors over sixteen. 
(Continue as under form for " men." As minors become of age trans- 
fer their names to the proper adult list and write in red opposite the trans- 
ferred name the word transferred. Also draw a light red line through the 
name.) . _____ 

STATE LEGISLATIVE PETITION WORK. 

NO. 15. 

Form of Popular Petitions. 

petition 

for ratification of the 

national prohibitory amendment. 

(Circulated by Committee composed of representatives of the sev- 
eral Prohibition organizations in the of , 

viz.: W. C. T. U., . . .) 

To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives (or Assembly) 

of the State of : 

We, the undersigned, citizens of , county 

of , earnestly pray you to ratify the Amendment 

to the Constitution of the United States which has been proposed by Con- 
gress, providing for the prohibition of the manufacture, importation, expor- 
tation, transportation and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage. 

(Each signer will please write in designated place the word voter or 
non-voter, as the case may be ; also politics and occupation. Signatures of 
minors over sixteen are desired. ) 

Name. \ Voter or Non-voter. | Politics. \ Occupation. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 101 

NO. 16. 
Form of Representative Petitions. 

petition 

for ratification of the 

national prohibitory amendment. 

(Procured by committee composed of representatives of the several 

Prohibition organizations in the , of , 

viz.: W. C. T. U., ) 

To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives (or Assem- 
bly) of the State of 

The , in assembled, 

held in , on the day of , 

1 8 — , numbering (or representing) .... members, adopted the following 
resolution and directed the presiding officer and secretary to sign and trans- 
mit it to the Legislature, viz. : 

Resolved, That we earnestly pray the Legislature of 

to ratify the Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which 
has been proposed by Congress providing for the prohibition of the manu- 
facture, importation, exportation, transportation and sale of all alcoholic 
liquors as a beverage. 

, President {ot Chairman). 

, Secretary. 

HOW TO USE THE PETITIONS. 

The first thing to do is to secure the signatures on two petitions of all 
National Constitutional Prohibitionists whose names appear affixed to the 
pledge in canvassing registers of the district. 

This done, continue the work of registering others, and securing their 
signatures on the two petitions— one to be presented in each body of the 
State Legislature. As in the prior petition work, so in this, do not copy 
names. Procure original signatures on each set of petitions. 

In carrying on this branch of the canvass, follow the first seven of the 
directions given under Congressional petition work, beginning on page 82. 
Follow the eighth, using the new form for representative petitions. 

Begin sending the petitions to the State Capital on the second Monday 
of the first session of the State Legislature after proposal of the Amend- 
ment. Collect the petitions for sending on the first Thursday after the first 
Monday of the Legislative session. Afterwards, transmit petitions from 
time to time when ten or more additional names are secured, until the ad- 
journment of the Legislature for the session. 

Should the Legislature be sitting at time of proposal of the Amendment, 
begin sending the petitions at once. 



102 National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 

If no action, or adverse action, is taken on the proposition, continue 
securing names to transmit the next session. In case of adverse action, 
modify forms so as to ask for reconsideration at the hands of the subse- 
quent Legislature. Otherwise, follow No. 9 of the directions, page 83. 

Send the representative petitions without indorsement to be properly 
indorsed by the chairman of the N. P. A. Committee for State Legislative 
work 

For the indorsement on each popular petition use the subjoined form, 
No. 17, writing very plainly at the top of the folded petition, and filling 
blank spaces. 

When the petitions are ready to be forwarded, send them to the State 
Capital addressed to the 

Chairman N. P. A Committee for State Legislative Work. 

Word will be left at the State Capital post-office as to where to deliver 
mail matter thus addressed. 

The chairman of the N. P. A. Committee for State Legislative work 
will have a record made of the petitions, for use in the canvass. The two 
from each canvassing district will then be handed, one to the Senator repre- 
senting the county in which the canvassing district is located, and the other 
to the proper member of the Lower House. 

NO. 17. 
Form of Indorsement on Popular Petitions to State Legis- 
latures. 

Petition of citizens, ( — voters and — non-voters), of .... 

county, praying for ratification of the Amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States which has been proposed by Congress, providing for 
the prohibition of the manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation 
and sale oi all alcoholic liquors as a beverage. 



REPORTING LOCAL WORK TO PROHIBITION ORGANIZATIONS. 

The achievements of N. P. A. Committees for local work, after propo- 
sal, are to be reported in the same way as before proposal of the Amend- 
ment 

The only changes to be made in the form of reports are the following : 
In monthly and semi-annual reports, omit the word "Congress" in 
the third, fourth, fifth and sixth lines, and insert the words the State Legis- 
lature, instead. (See form of monthly reports, page 93, and semi-annual 
reports, page 97.) 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 103 

Copies of these reports are to be furnished to the same persons, and 
through the same channels, as were monthly and semi-annual reports be- 
fore proposal of the Amendment. 



STATE LEGISLATIVE CANVASSING AND REPORTS. 

This branch of the work embodies : 

First. — Preparation . 
Second. — Performance. 
Third. — Reports. 

Preparation. — This consists : First. In addressing, if the Legislature 
is not sitting, an official letter to members elect, not already committed to 
the interest, asking their vote for ratification. Second. In procuring in- 
fluential persons to interview such members before their departure for the 
seat of State government, and to secure, if they can, promises to support rati- 
fication. Third. In procuring, after convening of the Legislature, of let- 
ters to members to the same effect by influential people of their respective 
vicinities. Fourth. In completing the preparation for introduction of 
petitions and memorials forwarded by N. P. A. Committees for local work. 
Fifth. In getting ready to address the committee of both Houses of the 
Legislature to which the Amendment is referred, if it be referred to com- 
mittees and it is thought best to ask to be heard. Sixth. In getting ready 
to address the committee of the whole House, providing invitation, or per- 
mission, to do so is received from either body. Seventh. In getting ready to 
interview individual members in behalf of the Amendment. All to the end 
that the Amendment shall receive favorable action at the hands of commit- 
tees, and, finally, shall be ratified by the Legislature. 

Performance. — This consists in the handing of petitions and memori- 
als to members for presenting in their respective bodies, in addressing com- 
mittees, in interviewing members, and in any other efforts which may be put 
forth to secure ratification of the Amendment. 

P-Eports.— But one report is to be made by each N. P. A. Committee 
for State legislative work, and this at the end of the canvass in that State 
It, signed by the chairman and secretary, is to embrace an account of peti- 
tions and memorials forwarded by N. P. A. Committees for local work and 
presented in the Legislature, an account, with results, of efforts put forth by 
the committee before ratification and of money received and expended. 

A copy of each State legislative report is to be furnished to members of 
the committee, to General Officers of other State and of National Prohibi- 
tion organizations, and to committeemen of canvassing districts of the 
country. The General Officers of the several Territorial Prohibition organi- 



104 



National Prohibitory Amendment Guide. 



zations are to be furnished with copies also. The same method is to be em- 
ployed in reaching persons with these reports as in the case of National 
reports, given on page 95. 

Members of N. P. A. Committees for State Legislative work should pro- 
vide themselves with report books similar to those local committeemen are 
to be furnished. 



RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF' COMMITTEES. 

The expenses of National Prohibitory Amendment committees are to 
be met by contributions from the. organizations represented on them, by con- 
tributions from other sources, and by the efforts of individual committees 
put forth in various ways as the circumstances may warrant. 

All contributions should be sent to the Treasurer of the committee. 
The Treasurer should promptly acknowledge receipts. 

The committee should furnish the Treasurer with a blank-book in which 
to record moneys received and expended during the canvass. 

On the first Monday of each month, the Treasurer is to furnish the Sec- 
retary with a statement of the month's receipts and expenditures for incor- 
porating into monthly and semi-annual reports. « 

Below is given the form of keeping the account. It will answer for the 
three classes of committees. 



NO. 18. 

Treasurer of N. P. A. Committee for 

Dr. In account with the Committee. 



Date of 

receipt. 



Source of 
receipt. 



Amount of 
receipt. 



Date of 
expenditure. 



For what 
expended. 



Amount of 
expenditure. 



O SINCE MAY 1ST, 1S59, >> 

(To Oct. 1st, 1889.) 
We have printed four editions of 10,000 Copies Each, 

* 40,000 & 

Of Miss Frances E. Willard's new autobiographical book, 

"Glimpses of Fifty Years." 

The next edition of 10,000— making 50,000 in all— is now on the press. 

WHAT THEN? 

Why, that it's a splendid selling book— greatly in demand — very much 
liked wherever it goes and that 2,000 or more people find it easy to 
make a good living selling it. Don't you want to join them? Know 
of anyone that needs employment and can not find it? Don't hesitate 
to write for circulars and terms promptly. There is good territory to be 
had for the asking. Address, 

THE PUBLISHERS, OR THE GENERAL AGENTS, 



THE WOMAN'S TEMP. PUB. ASS'N, 
161 La Salle Street, 

Chicago. 



H. J. SMITH & CO., 
Chicago, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Mo., 

Oakland, Cal. 

General agents for United States, Canada 

Australia, Sandwich Islands. 



National Prohibitory Amendment Leaflets. 

Compiled by Ada M. Bittenbender, National W. C. T. U. 
Superintendent of Legislation and Petitions. 

These leaflets cover the various reasons for National Constitu- 
tional Prohibition, and answer the common 
objections against it. 

SEND TEN CENTS F=OR PEN KSSORTED PKCKHGB. 

Address, THE WOMAN'S TEMP. PUB. ASS'N, 

161 La Salle Street, Chicago. 



\ 



How Can Good Work he Done Without Tools? 

In juvenile work, especially, one should be well fitted for 
teaching temperance to the future voters. 

Miss Anna Gordon's 

series of helps will be found simply invaluable. 

QUESTIONS ANSWERED 

is a compendium on Organization, Drilling, Entertainments, 
Supplies, Sunday-school Work, etc: Every possible question 
in juvenile work has been answered explicitly and clearly . Miss 
Frances E . Willard has written for it an eloquent " Appeal ta 
Mothers." 

Covers cloth-lined and printed in colors. Price 25 cents. 

PROHIBITION PROGRAM 

is the next on the list. An original collection of speeches, 
poems and songs for an evening's entertainment or home read- 
ing. It has a dialogue entitled " Sense vs. License," by E. J. 
Wheeler, which is wonderfully effective, pertinent and sug- 
gestive, and is full of help to every juvenile worker. 
Price, 10 cents. 

MARCHING SONGS. 

A child without songs would be as lost as a bird without 
its tuneful voice. We have printed over 100,000 of these books 
of temperance songs, and the demand still continues. It is con- 
ceded to be the very best children's song book published. The 
reason for the success of this book, as well as of the others in 
the series, lies in the fact that Miss Gordon's experience, both 
as a teacher and from her constant attendance at Assemblies and 
Institutes, has been most wisely given. The prices of all the 
books are very moderate. A copy of Marching Songs, 64 
pages, is only 10 cents. 

All three books will be sent on receipt of 40 cents. Address : 

51?e U/omai/s 5<?/i)perai?ee Publication Association 

161 LA SALLE ST. CHICAGO 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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